Guardians of Remnant
by Orion Imperial
Summary: Two best friends are teleported to Remnant, and are taken in by Professor Ozpin as students. However, when they uncover a conspiracy covering both Remnant and Earth, they are forced to stop a war before it even begins. Lines are drawn, and blood is spilled. Rated M.
1. In the beginning

**So this is my first story. Yes I am new to this, so the writing is going to be horrific. But this is when I ask for your help. If you can tell me what I am doing wrong in my writing style it would help me alot. But moving on, this is the first of the two chapters I have already written, and I will be uploading both of them together, and upload a third one within the next week or two. If you guys do enjoy them, then I will write the following chapters. I should probably also point out that this is NOT an insert. I know that most people have a negative attitude towards them, and I can understand why, but while this story is in first person it is in no way an insert.**

 **And just a heads up, there are dark themes like thoughts of suicide and PTSD that will come up later in the story, along with thoughts of suicide. I will warn you about what chapter they will come up in. So enjoy this first chapter, I hope.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any of the characters of RWBY. All OC's are of my own creation. All rights go to Rooster Teeth Productions.**

* * *

 _BEEP. BEEP. BEEP._

"Ugh, you fucking bastard..."

I was awaken by the sound of my alarm clock. I wanted to sleep for another five minutes but my friends were going to arrive at my door. Today we were going to go hiking. So reluctantly I turned off my alarm clock and got out of bed. I sluggishly made my way to my bathroom stopping in front of the mirror. I took in my appearance. I was 5'11" in height, my body lean but still in good shape from my years in track. My brown hair and eyes stood out against my pale, almost white, skin. A gift from my Germanic heritage. I guess one could say I was average for a male. Sighing I went through my morning routine. Running my hand through my mid length hair I realized there was still time before my friends got here to pick me up.

I had decided to check my phone messages when I heard a knock on the door. Opening the door there was a blonde girl, who was a couple inches shorter than me. This girl was Azura Hood, my best friend. She's only a year younger than me, but she had the mind of a thirteen year old.

"Hey Ash!" she said as we hugged each other.

"Hey Azura."

After we stopped hugging I turned around and closed the door, and we started walking towards . I was not expecting a black Chevrolet Colorado belonging to Gray Ketchum, who was sitting in the driver's seat next to his younger brother, Hunter. I got in the back with Azura after we put our stuff in the bed of the truck.

"Hey Krieger, how's it going?" Gray asked as soon as I entered the truck.

"It's going good," I answered as I closed the door. "How's it going?"

"It's going good," Gray replied. "Better now that I'm on leave actually. Don't get to come home as much as I would like." Gray enlisted into the Marines as soon as he graduated. He wanted me to enlist with him, but I wanted to go to college first then become a military officer. I didn't want to wait, but I promised Azura that I would. I actually made a promise to her that I wouldn't join the military immediately and instead just give it some time. She was actually worried that I would when I graduated; I guess that showed how much she cared about me. I knew why she worried about me joining, but we never talked about it.

"So, how are the Marines treating you Gray?" I asked.

"Well, it's a pain in the ass waking up at five in the morning, but other than that I'm enjoying it." To be honest it sounded like he was questioning himself. "You should have joined with me, I know you would like that lifestyle."

I expected him to say that.

"You know I want to go through college first." I told him. "It's not like the military will disappear within the next three years." I turned to look at Azura, who was looking out the window. She was probably trying to ignore our conversation; not that I could blame her.

* * *

During the rest of the ride we talked about other things to get Azura into the conversation. Upon arriving at the trail, we all got out of Gray's truck. As soon as we got out of the truck I couldn't help but stretch. Gray then took up an opportunity to strike up a conversation.

"Is Azura still sore about you wanting to join?"

"Yeah, she's afraid I'll get myself killed if I join. And I don't blame her." I looked away from Gray and at Azura, who, for some reason, was harassing Hunter. It was kinda funny actually. None of us liked talking about what happened, and it was best not to.

"Look, Ash, we all miss him, and Azura is just worried about you. She just doesn't want to lose you."

"I know." I said in a low whisper.

"So, any news about your sister?" Now that was something I didn't think he would ask.

"It's been three years, Gray," I told him. "I think it's safe to assume-"

"Hey guys!" Hunter called to us, interrupting me. "Are we gonna go or what?" He and Azura already had their backpacks on, ready to go.

"Yeah, just give us a minute!" I called back. "Look Gray, she's been missing for three years, and there still has been no news on her. Marigold's dead, alright?"

Gray opened his mouth to speak, but instead let out a sigh, accepting that I was right. She was gone, and she was never coming back. We grabbed our backpacks and began walking up the trail with Azura and Hunter. Marigold disappeared when I was sixteen, and within the three years of her missing, no evidence of her being alive, or how she even disappeared, was discovered. We always hoped that the police would find something on her, but the only thing they couldn't find a single thing. I was nineteen now, and she would be twenty-one by now.

We continued walking along the trail for about an hour. We use to walk up this with a few other people over the years, but since the majority of us who graduated went to out of state schools, it was just us now.

We got to the point where we normally stopped to rest and decided to take a break. I took off my backpack and sat on a log next to what use to be a stream. The drought had really messed this place up good. Azura sat down next to me, looking like she ran a few miles.

"Well that's my workout for the next few months." I said jokingly.

"Yeah, same here." Azura said, chuckling slightly. Then something caught Azura's gaze, which appeared to confuse her."Was that cave always there?"

"What cave?" I was confused by what she asked. She then pointed to a cave I had never noticed before. "Oh, that cave. When did that get there?" And then Azura gave me the terrifying "lets go explore this shit" look. "Oh God, please no."

"Yes!" She replied, jumping up and grabbing me by the wrist and dragging me towards the mouth of the cave. And it didn't look like I had a choice anymore.

"Hey Gray!" I called to him, who was talking to Hunter at the time. "We're gonna explore this cave, we'll be right back!"

"Ok, but don't go too far in!" He called back. I was hoping he would say no, but I got the exact opposite.

 _There was no way this cave was here before,_ I thought to myself. _We would have explored something like this a long time ago. But if this was here before, how come we never fou-_ My thoughts were cut off when I saw a figure wearing a white and red cloak standing about thirty feet ahead of us, at what looked like a corner. This made me stop dead in my tracks, staring at the figure, which turned to it's right and began to walk off.

"Azura did you see that?"

"The person wearing the cloak?" So she saw it too. I guess I wasn't going insane. Now I was curious what that person was doing here.

I started to walk forward slowly, with Azura following close behind me. The further into the cave we went, the darker it started get. But when we were about to round the corner the figure was at, we saw a flash of light and stopped. We peeked around the corner to see what caused it, but it was too dark to see. Azura then took out her phone and turned the flashlight setting on, which illuminated much of what was in front of us. I was about to take another step when the mysterious light flashed again, only this time it didn't fade as quickly as it did before. Further down the cave was an opening that was large enough for us to walk through. We started walking towards it when it flashed again, and it faded at a slower rate than it did previously. It seemed like the closer we got to it, the slower the light would fade.

When we finally got to the opening, we noticed what was causing the flashing light, and where it was. In front of us was a cavern, lit up by a white light emanating from the tip a stalagmite resting on a small rocky island in the center. This was surrounded by a shallow pool of water. The white light began to flash again, only this time it did not fade.

I decided to go take a look at whatever was the cause of that light and walked towards the pool of water. I stopped when I thought I heard something, like a whisper.

"Did you say something?" I asked Azura.

"No, I didn't." She replied.

I was about to walk into the water when I heard it again, this time clearly hearing the whisper and what it was saying. _Ash_ , it said. Then I heard it again. _Ash._ I realized that it wasn't Azura whispering, but something else, and the whisper seemed to be coming from whatever was glowing on that stalagmite. I stepped into the water and started walking towards the small island. The whisper started to get louder as I got closer to the island. As I did I noticed what the source of the light was: a white gem about the size of my hand, resting on the top of the stalagmite, which was about four feet tall.

I seemed to be drawn to the gem as I started walking to it, curious as to what it was and why it was glowing. As I drew nearer the voice started to speak louder and more frequent than before. I was now standing in front of the stalagmite, staring at the glowing white gem. I moved my hand up to the gem to pick it up, and as I did it began to glow brighter. I then picked up the gem, and the voice stopped talking, and the gem quit glowing. I didn't even realize Azura followed me to the gem until now when I saw her standing on my left, also staring at the gem. The cavern began to shake, and it's roof of the cave began to crumble and fall.

"ASH!" I heard Azura scream, she looked terrified, and I probably had the same look on my face. My attention was then drawn up to the roof of the cavern, chunks of which started to fall close to us.

"GET DOWN!" I yelled as I grabbed Azura, brought her to a crouching position and covered her body with mine. The entire cavern was falling apart around us. It seemed clear to me that picking up the gem seemed to be the cause of it.

Little did I know our lives had changed forever.

* * *

 **Ok, so that was the first chapter. Like I said before, tell me what I need to improve, and if you enjoyed this chapter let me know.**


	2. The Forest

It took me a second to realize that I was still alive, or at least I thought I still was. Everything around me was white, and Azura was nowhere in site. I searched around frantically for her, when I realized that I wasn't alone. With me was the figure with the white cloak, the shadow of their hood covering the top half of their face. could see now that the figure was indeed female dressed in a black and red blouse and skirt. She was about my height. I was a little unnerved as she wouldn't stop staring at me.

"Uh..." I said nervously. "Hi?"

The mysterious woman just looked at me and smiled, before speaking up.

"Don't worry, Ash Krieger, I mean you no harm." The relief was short lived when I realized I had never told her my name, let alone I did not know hers.

"Uh, ok, but how do you know my name?"

"I'm sorry but that would take too long to explain. I just need you to know that I will contact you again soon." This was getting weird. "I know this is strange to you, but I chose you for a reason."

"Chose me? Hold on, what do you mean? What's goi-"

"Find Ozpin, Ash. He will help you."

"Wait! Who are you!? Wait!"

* * *

"Ash wake up! Please!"

I woke up to a crying Azura shaking me by my shoulders as I lay on the ground. It was dark, but it seemed like the moon was lighting up the ground. It wasn't even two seconds after I woke up that I was suddenly enveloped into an extremely tight hug from Azura, who buried her face into my neck and began sobbing. She then said something that was so muffled that I couldn't understand it.

"What did you say?" I asked her. She looked up at me, with tears streaming down her face.

"I-I thought I lost you." She then buried her face into my chest and started sobbing again. So she thought I died? How long was I out? But more importantly, where were we. The place we stopped to rest at during our hike had a few trees and a bunch of rocks, but it looked as though we were in the middle of a forest. As far as I knew, there were no forests like this near our city. I decided to calm down Azura first before figuring out where we were.

"Azura." She didn't respond. "Hey, Azura look at me." She looked back up at me, tears still falling down her face. "I'm still alive, ok? I'm not gonna die anytime soon, alright?"

"Promise me..." She whispered.

"I'm sorry?" I asked.

"Nothing. Nevermind." She said as she finally regained her composure and started wiping the tears off her face. She looked around before looking back at me. "Do you know where we are?"

"No, not a clue." I replied. "None of this looks familiar to me."

"Same," She said. "So what do we do now?" Our best bet was to find someone, a town or a diner, just something so we could find out where we were, but which direction would we have to go. It didn't even look like we were in the same state anymore.

"We have to find a town or something with people. Then we can figure out where we are."

"But where do we go?" She asked. "It kinda looks like we're in the middle of nowhere."

 _Ash look right_. That voice, it was that woman in that cloak. _From your right just keep walking and you will find a large tower. That is where you will find him._

"Ash?" I realized I was just staring at Azura while I was listening to this woman, whoever she was. I looked over to my right to see where mystery woman wanted me to go. Like every other direction there was a bunch of trees, but maybe they were blocking this tower she was talking about. Maybe it was best to listen to her.

"I think we should go that way." I said, as I got off the ground.

"Wait, why?" Azura asked me. Should I tell her? About the woman? Or should I not tell her?

"I-uh, I have a hunch." Like she was gonna buy that, Ash, you dumbass.

"..." There is no way in hell she was gonna buy that. "Well, I guess we go that way then?" Well that wasn't expected. She got up as and stood next to me, staring in the direction we we're gonna go.

"Alright, just stay close to me." I told her. "I don't want you to get separated from me." We started walking through the forest, walking close together so we wouldn't lose sight of each other.

We continued walking for about fifteen minutes before Azura started to get "tired" and forced me to carry her on my back. She normally does this when we walk somewhere after watching a movie. I continued walking with her on my back for another thirty minutes before we got to a clearing, and above the treeline, we could make out a huge tower with glowing green orbs in it towards the top. This had to be it.

"Ok, you can put me-" Azura stopped talking as we heard a low growl come from behind us. Both of us froze.

"Ash, please tell me that was your stomach."

"I don't think so."

I let Azura down, and slowly turned my head around and saw a pair of glowing orange eyes looking right at us. The eyes started moving towards us, and I pushed Azura behind me as a large black and white creature with red markings bone-like spikes and plates covering it's body. We started moving back, away from it as it walked towards us. I noticed a large stick on the ground and grabbed it, pointing it towards the monster like a sword.

"Ash, hate to break it to you, but I don't think that's gonna kill it." Azura told me, her voice filled with fear.

"Just stay behind me," I told her. "And if I tell you to run, you run and don't look back! Ok?"

"What? No! I'm not lea-"

"Azura listen to me! I'm not gonna be able to hold this thing off, so when I tell you to run, you run!" If she died because I couldn't protect her, I would never forgive myself. She seemed to give in as she lowered her head.

"Alright, but _you_ better not get yourself killed, alright?" I looked back at her, and I could see her eyes starting to water.

"Azura, I am not going to die," I told her. "I promise."

I looked back at the giant creature, which then stood on it's two hind legs and raised one of it's claws as if it were gonna swing it towards us.

"RUN!" I yelled at Azura. She turned around and ran towards the trees behind us. The creature swung it's paw down towards me. I tried to dodge it but it still hit me, and I was thrown into a nearby tree, which knocked the wind out of me, and fell to the ground, lying on my stomach. I tried to get up, but I just fell back onto the ground.

"ASH!"

Oh God no... Azura was standing behind a tree instead of running like I told her. She caught the creature's attention and it started walking towards her. I tried to get up again, but when I tried I felt an agonizing pain in my side, and I also felt something wet slide down my body. I assumed the worst as I placed my right hand on the site of the pain, feeling something warm and wet. I looked and my hand, and saw it covered in blood. The creature must have slashed me with one of it's claws when it hit me.

I looked back up to Azura, to see that she was on the ground, moving away from the creature, which raised its claw to strike her.

"NOOO!" As I yelled this I raised my right hand towards the creature, and as I did, something weird happened. The creature was then sent off the ground and tumbled through the air and into a tree like a ragdoll. I was startled at this, but then my attention was turned to Azura, who was running towards me. "I thought I told-"

"Goddammit Ash!" She screamed at me as she slid down by my side. She looked at my wound, and put her hand on it.

"Aaarrrrggghhh!" I let out as she touched my wound. I wanted to push her away from me, but I forced myself not to. Then I started to feel tired, and my vision started to blur.

I looked up towards the creature, which started to get back up. It looked right at us and growled. Azura needed to get out of here, and in my state there was no way she was gonna make it out alive. I was just about to tell her to leave me, when the sound of a jet overhead made me keep quiet. Whatever it was also caught the creature's attention.

Suddenly an aircraft with small jet engines on either side of it stopped right above us, and four figures jumped out of the aircraft and between us and the creature. Then, I collapsed back onto the ground and passed out from blood loss.


	3. Infirmary

I turned over, my conscious coming to the forefront. My eyes lingered shut as the warmth of my bed enveloped me. I opened my tired eyes slowly, my blurred vision coming to focus when I realized something weird. The ceiling was different from my room, and it smelt like a hospital. I looked around and I realized I was in something akin to a hospital. I pushed myself up so I was sitting instead lying down on the bed. I noticed that I was still in my regular clothes, and that there was a huge tear at the bottom half of my shirt, which was also covered in blood. The strange thing was that there was no visible wounds even though I felt sore as all hell.

"Oh good, you're finally awake."

I jumped a bit at the sound of the voice, as I thought I was the only one in the hospital. It appeared I wasn't, turning my head to the left to see a middle aged man. He had grey hair and shaded glass spectacles sitting in a chair next to where I was lying.

"How are you feeling?" The mysterious man asked me.

"Uh... F-fine, I guess?" I answered nervously. I didn't know where I was, or why this man was waiting for me to wake up. Or where Azura was. _Oh shit_ , I thought to myself, _where's Azura!_ "A-Azura! Where's Azura!? Is she alright!?"

"She's alright. You two were attacked by an Ursa Major." We were attacked by a constellation? How the hell was that suppose to make any sense? "Luckily team CFVY was coming back from a mission when they came across you."

None of this was making any sense. First we were attacked by a monster named after a constellation, then we were saved by team coffee? _Who the fuck names a team coffee?_ I thought to myself.

"But there is something we need to discuss." He said, as he reached his hand into his coat pocket and pulled out a white gem, the same one me and Azura found in the cavern. "Where did you find this?"

I was confused. I didn't remember us talking about it after I woke up. Hell, I didn't even remember it being with us. So how did he have it?

"How the hell do you have that?"

"Miss Adel found it in your pocket while they were bringing you here." It was in my pocket? Now I was more confused than before. I never put it in my pocket. _Maybe that woman..._

Suddenly the door to the hospital swung open and Azura came running in. When she got to my bed she threw herself onto me and buried her face into my shoulder. This forced me to lie back down on the bed as she began to sob uncontrollably.

"What the fuck is wrong with you!?" She yelled at me as she cried. I looked at the man and noticed for the first time a woman with a beret was also in the room. She looked to be about my age.

"I'm sorry Professor Ozpin," She said to the man, "I couldn't hold her back anymore."

Ozpin? _Wait a minute_ , I thought to myself, _Is this the man who that woman was talking about?_ I couldn't be talking to the person I was suppose to find, it was way too easy!

"It's alright Miss Adel," Ozpin replied, "I had a feeling this would happen."

Azura then started to get up off the bed, and sat on a chair just to the right of the bed. I pushed myself back into a sitting position and looked back at Azura, who was just staring at the ground trying to calm herself down. I was about to get up and out of the bed to try and calm her down when the woman with the beret spoke.

"You're lucky that we got to you before you were killed," she said, "You should thank Velvet for helping you. If it weren't for her, your Aura wouldn't have been able to help you one bit."

"I-I guess I will when I see her," I told her, "But I have to ask what do you mean by Aura?"

"Oh yeah, Professor," she said as she turned to Ozpin, "The girl keeps saying that they are from a place called Austin, Texas, but no such place exists. She also said that she has never heard of Vale or Beacon."

What was she talking about? Texas does exist, it's one of the largest states in the US! But then something got me thinking, the gem. When I picked it up, it sent us to the middle of a random forest, and that woman who said she chose me and told me to look for Ozpin.

Maybe I was jumping to conclusions too quickly, but it seemed as if Azura and I were no longer on Earth.

"What's the name of this planet?" I asked suddenly without thinking.

"What?" Adel asked, a bit confused.

"The name of this planet," I repeated, "what is it?"

"Are you serious? It's called Remnant. You know that, right?"

I just stared at them, thinking that this must have been some really complicated prank. We couldn't have been transported to a different world, could we? I didn't know what to think anymore. Maybe this was real. maybe we were on a different world now...

"This is gonna sound strange to you, and I understand if you don't believe us, but we are not from Remnant." Adel gave me a strange look, but Ozpin kept the same blank facial expression. "Azura and I are from a world called Earth. We were exploring a cave while hiking when we found that gem," I pointed to the gem that Ozpin was still holding, "I know this sounds crazy, but that gem teleported both of us here. After that we woke up in that forest and started to look for some place to find out how to get home. Then we were attacked by that Ursa Major."

I felt wasn't convincing them. _Dammit_ , I thought to myself, _It's not working._

 _Ash,_ I heard that voice again, the voice of that woman, _tell Ozpin this: Summer Rose, thus kindly I scatter._ I didn't know why she wanted me to say that, but I thought that maybe it was some sort of code phrase.

"Summer Rose, thus kindly I scatter." While Adel's look of confusion remained on her face, Ozpin's immediately changed to surprise.

"What did you just say?" He asked me.

"S-Summer Rose, thus kindly I scatter?" I didn't know if I was asking a question, or answering his. He looked as if he were thinking for a few seconds before he turned to Adel.

"Miss Adel, Miss Hood, I need to speak with Mr. Krieger alone for a few minutes." Azura's head shot up as soon as he said that.

"What? No! I'm not leaving him again!" She shouted at Ozpin. I was curious as to what he had to say. I turned to her and sat on the edge of the bed.

"Azura," I told her, "I'm alright now. I'll talk to him for only a few minutes, then you can come back in, ok?"

"I'm not gonna leave you again! What if they-What if he tries to kill you? We don't know w-who t-these people..." She started sobbing uncontrollably again while looking at the ground.

"They would have killed us instead of helping us," I told her, then I remembered something she said back in the forest.

 _Promise me..._

"Azura," I said as I put my hands on her shoulders, "I'm not gonna die. Not now, not ever. I promise you, ok?" She looked up at me with tears in her eyes before she suddenly enveloped me into a hug.

"Y-you promise?" She said between sobs.

"I promise." I hugged her back for a few seconds before she let go and got back on her feet. She walked out the door with Adel not far behind her. So now it was just me and Ozpin.

"Tell me everything."

I didn't know where to begin, so I started with the "dream" I had before waking up in the forest.

"Before waking up in the forest, I had a dream. Well, maybe not a dream but I don't know what to call it. Everything was white, and there was this woman there, with a white and red cloak. She told me that she chose me for a reason, and to look for you. She has been telling me things even out of the dream, like where to find this place and that code phrase that I told you."

As he took it all in, he stood up and looked out a window next to him.

"Her name is Summer Rose. And what you told me is the epitaph that is written on her gravestone." That shocked me. This woman was dead? But how? "She was killed while on a mission seven years ago," He turned to look at me, with the gem still in hand, "And it looks like you found it."

"Found what?" He tossed the gem at me, which caught me off guard, but I managed to catch it.

"This gem," He said, "It was her mission. She was looking for them. She found two, but when looking for the third one, she was killed. And it looks like she wants you to find the rest."

"What do you mean by them? There's more?"

"Yes. There are believed to be ten in total."

"Well," I said, "What are they suppose to do?"

"We don't know. The one you have is the only one we have so far."

I looked at the gem in my hand. It wasn't glowing like it was before. Did it no longer work? It seemed like a plausible answer. The realization suddenly hit me like a bucket of cold water.

"We can't go home..."

We were stuck here, in a place we had no knowledge of. What were we supposed to do?

"I'll cut you a deal." Ozpin suddenly spoke up, "I run a school that trains Huntsmen and Huntresses to fight against the Grimm, one of which you encountered in the forest. I will let you and your friend stay here and learn how to fight them. And in return, you complete Summer's mission."

That was something I didn't want to do. Azura and I were forced here against our will, and now we were expected to go out and find seven more of these gems? Why would we do that? I was about to say no, but then I realized that if I did, we would be on our own, and we would not be able to keep ourselves alive. But more importantly, there was no way of getting back home. There was really only one option...

"Alright," I said, " I'll do it. But I don't know if Azura will want to."

"Why don't we go ask her." Ozpin said as he started walking towards the door.

I followed him to the door, and put the gem into my pocket. But just before we left the infirmary, he stopped and looked at me in the eyes.

"You know," He said, "Your eyes are silver, just like hers."

"What?"

"Your eyes, they're silver."

The next thing he told me confused me, because my eyes were brown not silver. _Whatever_ , I thought to myself, _I'll ask Azura what color they are._

We walked out of the hospital, and to our left was Azura and Adel, along with a really tall guy in green, a man with copper hair and a girl with rabbit ears.

Wait, what? Was I imagining things?

"Ash!" Azura called at me, "Look, she's got bunny ears! And guess what!"

"Uh, what?"

"They're real! She's what's called a Faunus, humans with animal parts!" While I was surprised by that, I needed to ask her about staying here at this school.

"Azura," I said, "We need to talk."

"About?"

I let out a sigh, then took the gem out of my pocket and showed it to her. It still wasn't glowing, just like it was before. Azura looked at the gem, then looked at me, confused.

"This gem isn't gonna send us home. We're stuck here." She just stared at me, shaking her head slowly. "I'm sorry."

"No..."

"Azu-"

"No!" She yelled, "We can't be stuck here! We have to be able to go home!" She then snatched the gem out of my hand and started shaking it.

"Azura-"

"Send us back you fucker! Send us back!"

"Azura!" I yelled to get her to stop, "It doesn't work, so it's not gonna send us back. I'm sorry."

She stopped shaking the gem and stared at it for a couple seconds. Then she looked up at me, with a look of worry on her face.

"S-so what are we gonna d-do then?" She asked. I looked over at Ozpin, who nodded at me, then I looked back at Azura and spoke.

"Ozpin has given us a deal," I told her, "We can stay here at this school and learn how to fight those monsters they call Grimm. But in return we have to find the rest of these gems."

"Wait..." She said, "There's other gems?"

"Yeah. There are ten of them, actually." I replied.

Azura stared at me for a couple seconds, then looked at Ozpin and the people I assumed were team coffee. Then she looked back at me, and nodded.

"You sure?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure." Was her response.

"Alright," I said as I turned to speak to Ozpin, "When do we start?"

"It is already too late for you two to enroll here, as it is the last month of the semester," He told us, "However the next one starts in three months and that gives you both enough time to create your weapons and train enough to at least fight the Grimm."

"We get to create our own weapons!?" Azura squealed, "Eeeeeehhhhhh! This is so cool!"

"Miss Adel and Miss Scarlatina will help you with your weapons tonight. Afterwards, they will escort you both to temporary dorm rooms here in the school. I will let you know where you will stay after tonight." He turned and started to walk away when he suddenly stopped and turned to us. "Oh, and it would be best if no one else knew you were from a different world. We wouldn't want anything bad to happen to the two of you."

"We understand." I told the professor. To be honest, I didn't know what he meant at the time, but I should have asked him so me and Azura didn't do anything stupid down the road.

"I guess we should properly introduce ourselves then," Adel said, "I'm Coco Adel, this is Fox Alistair, Velvet Scarlatina and Yatsuhashi Daichi. We're team CFVY, the ones who rescued you."

"It's a pleasure to meet you all," I told them, "I'm Ash Krieger, and this is Azura Hood. Oh, and thank you for saving us both. We would've been killed if it weren't for you."

"We're just doing what we're trained to do." The girl with the bunny ears said. I still didn't understand how those were real, but I thought they were fucking cool.

"Alright," Coco said, "Let's go make your weapons. Fox, Yatsuhashi, you two can go back to the dorm."

They both nodded and walked past me and Azura, while we followed Coco and Velvet to the weapons building station.


	4. Weapons

On our way to the weapons building station, I decided to ask Coco and Velvet about Remnant. Apparently, almost everything on Remnant was powered by this thing called Dust, and it came in several forms. It could be used for cars, aircraft, weapons, anything. There was also the Grimm. Humanity had been fighting the Grimm since the beginning of time, and when Dust was discovered, Humanity stood a chance.

Humanity was also split into four Kingdoms, similar to Earth's countries. There was Vale, which we were in, Vacuo, Atlas and Mistral. There were other Hunter academies similar to Beacon in the other three Kingdoms. There were smaller, two year academies that most people wanting to become Hunters were supposed to go to before going to an academy like Beacon. When attending an academy like Beacon, everyone was put into a team of four people, like team CFVY. I also learned that the team names were spelt out by the first letter of each student's first name, so it wasn't team coffee, it was team CFVY.

And then there was the Faunus and the discrimination towards them. The discrimination they face was so bad that a group called the White Fang went from a peaceful group protesting for civil rights to a full fledged terrorist group. Most of the Faunus have said that the White Fang do not represent the Faunus population as a whole, but even then the racism against them is extreme.

"...And the discrimination has been getting worse ever since." Velvet said very timidly. She was a very, very timid person, and that could have been because of the discrimination against her for being a Faunus.

"Do they even have an excuse for them to discriminate?" I asked her, "It just sounds like they want to be pricks to whoever they want."

"Tell me about it," Coco said, "Whenever we go on a mission, there is always those people who tell her to leave or try to attack her. Luckily, they are either scared off by Yatsuhashi or get their asses kicked by the team."

"But why would they discriminate against something so cute?" Azura asked, "Just look at how cute those bunny ears are!"

"T-thanks..." Velvet said very timidly, again.

Then Azura gasped, grabbed my arm and started to shake it.

"Ash! Imagine a cat Faunus! Ooooooohhhhh, that would be so cute!"

"Yeah, it would be pretty cool to be a Faunus, actually." I said. Then I remembered asking Azura about my eyes. "Oh hey, Azura, what color are my eyes?"

"Do you not remember?" She asked, "They're brown."

"No, just look at them. Are they still brown?"

"Well yeah, of cour-" She stopped mid sentence as she looked at my eyes, "No wait, they are silver... THAT IS SO COOL! What color are my eyes!?"

"They're still blue."

"Aw! I wanted them to change too..." Azura said, disappointed.

We continued talking about the history of Remnant for the next three minutes, which in that time I realized that this school was huge. I expected it to be big, but it was just a lot bigger than I thought.

"Ok," Coco said, "We're here."

We stopped at a door with the label "Weapons Building Station" on it. My first thought was that the room was going to be about the size of the average high school classroom, but that expectation was quickly shot down when Coco opened the door. The room was about the size of three basketball courts, with tables of parts, probably for the weapons, lined up against the walls, except for the wall opposite to us, which appeared to have premade weapons on the tables.

"Velv can help you out," Coco told me, "I'll help your friend out."

"Alright," I replied, I then looked at Velvet, "So I just go through and build a weapon?"

"Y-yes, it can be any weapon you can think of." She told me.

I walked over to the nearest table and began looking at the different parts. There were hilts for swords, grips for rifles, pretty much every part you could think of for any type of weapon. The only problem was that I couldn't think of what I wanted to build. I looked over at the tables with the premade we weapons, thinking that they could help me think of something.

"What are the weapons over there for?" I asked

"Some of them are just examples for those who need a new weapon or are upgrading an old one," She told me, "But the rest are weapons that don't work properly."

"Are we able to salvage parts from the ones that don't work?" Velv nodded, and I walked over to the tables with her.

The weapons themselves were pretty badass, some were swords or what looked like a hybrid of a sword and a gun or something similar. But there was one thing that stood out to me, and that was what looked like a sword hilt, but with no blade. It looked like it didn't even have a slot for a blade. It was of a skeletal build, with the top of it separated from the main body by a kind of choke portion with a smaller cylindrical object in the middle of it. Below it was a black ridged handgrip. It immediately reminded me of a lightsaber from Star Wars. I picked it up and looked at it. The Star Wars nerd inside me was screaming lightsaber, but I asked Velvet what it was anyway.

"What's this?" I asked her.

"That looks like it would be an energy sword," She said, "It most likely uses a dust crystal fragment to power it. When you activate it a blade of energy should come out. The only problem is that it only lasts a second or two. Some people tried to find a way around this so it would stay up, which is probably how it got here."

I looked for a way to open it, and I found a silver button near the bottom. I clicked it and it did nothing, so I held it down and twisted it. The bottom moved right while the rest of it moved right. I took off the upper part of the hilt, and saw what looked like something that looked like pincers that could hold a small crystal inside of it.

I looked to my right and saw a box filled with different color crystals in it, maybe dust crystals. I walked over to it and looked for the smallest one in there. There was only one small, red crystal that looked like it could fit inside, so I picked it out of the box and put it between the pincers, then put the upper hilt back on. I stepped back a couple of feet from the box to give me some room to turn it on. I looked for a button that would turn it on, which was probably one of four buttons inside a small rectangle at the bottom third of the hilt. I immediately assumed it was the top one, which was red, so I pressed it. For a second, it turned on and a red blade about a yard long came out of it, but then the blade disappeared and it turned off, just like Velvet said it would.

"Well then." I said as I opened the hilt back up, to see that the small red crystal had disappeared from the pincers that were holding it up.

 _So it just eats up the dust crystals..._ I thought to myself. Then I had an idea, but I didn't know if it would work. I put the hilt back together then turned to Velvet.

"Do you know if there's anything that could cut a gem in here? I asked. She gave me a confused look before responding.

"Maybe. There could be something in that pile of blades over there." She said as she pointed to a table with a bunch of sword and knife blades sitting on it.

I walked over to it, looking for anything that could cut a small piece off from a gem. I found a large knife with a small hilt on it already, and it looked like it could cut off a small piece it enough pressure was put on it. I took the white gem out of my pocket and placed it on the table. My plan was to try and cut off a piece of the gem small enough to fit in between the pincers, and since the "energy sword" just ate through the dust crystal like it was nothing, maybe the gem would have enough energy left to power the sword without being completely used up.

The only thing that made question if this was going to work or not was if the crystal would even power it at all. So I decided to ask the resident ghost in my head whether this could work or not.

 _Hey, um, Summer_ , I asked in my head, _Could a piece of this thing power the energy sword non stop?_

...

 _No reply?_ I thought to myself. _Maybe she can't hear me? Is she only able to contact-_

 _Oh no, I can hear you clearly,_ She suddenly replied, _I was just thinking about it. These gems are like dust, they can power things, but unlike dust they can power anything indefinitely. The gem still has energy left in it, but not enough to send you home. So it is possible for you to use the gem as a power source for the energy sword. The only thing is I don't know if your plan to cut a piece off will work as easily as you think it would._

 _It's ok,_ I told her, _I got this._

"Uh... Ash?" Velvet asked, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm alright," I replied, "I was just thinking if this could work."

"What would?"

"I think this gem could power the energy sword like a dust crystal could," I explained, "But instead of running out quickly like the dust just did, it might be able to power it indefinitely."

"Ok, but I don't think that knife could cut that gem."

 _See,_ Summer told me in my head, _she doesn't think it's gonna work either._

"It'll work," I said, telling both Summer and Velvet, "There just needs to be enough pressure on the knife to cut the gem."

"But how are you gonna cut it?" Velvet asked. Then I realized that I couldn't cut it by myself. Someone would need to hold it down, and if Velvet held it and something went wrong she could get hurt and I didn't want to risk that.

 _Ash are you forgetting something?_ Summer asked me. I didn't think so...

 _What do you mean?_

 _Remember in the forest when you reached out to that Ursa and it flew into the tree?_ I completely forgot about that until now to be honest. _Well, that's your semblance._

 _What's a semblance?_

 _Oh, right. You're from a different world. Totally forgot,_ she said. _A Semblance is the manifestation of one's innate and personal power. Each semblance is unique to an individual, but it can be similar to the semblances of their parents. It's like a projection of one's Aura._

 _Ok, but what's an Aura?_ This was starting to get confusing.

 _Ok, you know what, I'll explain that later,_ Summer said, sounding a bit frustrated, _But for now let's talk about your semblance._

 _So basically I have superpowers?_ I asked.

 _Yes and no. You do have a "superpower", but you can only have one if you have an Aura. You discovered yours when you threw that Grimm into a tree._

 _So my semblance is pushing Grimm into trees then?_ I asked.

 _No smartass,_ She said, _Your semblance is telekinesis. You know what that is, right?_

 _Of course I do_ , I told her, _You can move stuff with your mind._

 _Ok, now I don't know how to work your semblance, but I am assuming you can concentrate on an object to move it or hold it in place. Good luck._.

"Ok Velv," I said, resting the knife on a small corner of the gem, "I'm gonna need you to help me here. I need you to put as much weight as possible on the knife so it could break off a piece of the gem, ok?"

"Ok," she replied, "But won't the gem move?"

"Just trust me, I have a plan."

I put my left hand on top of the flat edge of the blade, and Velvet did the same with both of her hands.

"Alright," I said, "On the count of three, push down on the knife as hard as you can."

"Ok."

Now came the hard part of holding it in place. I did what Summer told me to do and just concentrated on the gem. I didn't know if it was working or not, so I started counting down.

"One..."

 _Concentrate Ash..._

"Two..."

I suddenly felt different, as if I were in control...

"Three!"

Velvet and I pushed down on the knife hard, and in response we heard what sounded like glass shattering as a piece of the gem, small enough to fit into the hilt, was cut off and fell onto the table. The small fragment suddenly began to emit a dim white light. I picked it up and looked at it.

"I can't believe that worked." Velvet said, staring at the fragment.

 _Neither can I._

I put the fragment back on the table and picked up the hilt. I pressed the silver button and twisted it open, putting the upper hilt down onto the table and picking up the fragment. I stared at it for a second before putting it in between the pincers. I then put the upper hilt back on and twisted it shut.

"Let's hope this works." I said, taking a couple steps back from the table. I held the hilt in front of me, and pressed the on button.

Immediately a white blade, also a yard long, came out of the hilt. But instead of instantly disappearing like the dust blade, it stayed on. A low hum came from the blade as it stayed on. I tilted it left, then right. Then I moved it in a circular motion before gripping it with both hands.

"This is awesome!" I said. Velvet didn't say anything, but instead just stared at the energy sword in amazement.

On the outside I was "excited but calm", but in my head I was mentally screaming one thing.

 _I AM A FUCKING JEDI!_

There was no way that Azura could create a better weapon than mine, it was a lightsaber! Better yet, there was no way anyone could have better weapon than mine by far.

I looked at the other three buttons, which were white, unlike the on/off button. I pressed the one below the on/off button, and the blade dimmed noticeably. I pressed the button again, and it returned to it's original brightness. I pressed the one below that, and the blade lengthened another foot. I pressed it again, but nothing happened, so I pressed the button below it and it returned to it's original length. I pressed the same button again and the blade shrunk a foot. I pressed the one above it again, and it returned to it's normal length.

"Looks as though you've already finished." a voice said from behind me. I turned around to see Coco standing a few feet away from me.

"Yeah, with help from Velvet of course," I replied, "Azura still working on her's?"

"She's just finishing up, shouldn't take too long."

I looked over at Azura, who was hard at work making something. Knowing her, it was either gonna be extremely complicated or extremely simple.

"So what does your weapon do?" She asked me.

"It's just an energy sword, I guess it could cut through anything."

"Well, maybe not everything," she replied, "Nearly all weapons created are either infused with dust or created with special metals to make them heat resistant against other weapons, dust and even some grim."

"FINISHED!"

We all looked at Azura, who was walking towards us and was holding what looked like a short sword and a sheath for the short sword. She was also carrying a quiver with what looked like arrows inside, but she didn't have a bow with her.

"So you made a sword but not a bow for those arrows?" I asked as I deactivated my energy sword.

"Well..." she said just before she lifted up the short sword in front of her. It suddenly started shifting rapidly, with the blade and hilt splitting in half, forming itself into a bow. "My sword is the bow!"

"..."

 _Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you about that,_ Summer told me in my head, _You could have made a weapon that changed into another weapon or item._

"That makes mine look unimpressive..." I said. She actually made a weapon that made mine look like a piece of junk.

"Oh yeah?" Coco said, elbowing me in the arm, "Wait until you see mine."

"Is it more badass than that?" I asked her, and her response was a nod and a smirk.

 _So my weapon is being outclassed by pretty much everyone else's?_ I thought to myself.

 _Yup,_ Summer responded in my head, _prepare to be outclassed by pretty much everyone._

 _I forgot that you can hear some of my thoughts._

 _Actually, I can hear all of them._

 _That's not creepy at all._

"So, now you two gotta name 'em." Coco sid abruptly, snapping me out of my mental conversation with Summer.

"Name what? Our weapons?" I asked.

"Yeah," Velvet said, only now realizing that she was standing right next to me, "Everyone gives their weapons a name."

"So we can name them whatever we want?" Azura asked

"Of course," Coco said, turning her head to me, "So what are you gonna name yours?"

"Um... Ash you go first!" Azura said.

I didn't know what I was gonna name my new energy sword. I didn't want to name it something off the top of my head, no. I wanted it's name to have meaning. I looked at my new weapon, and started to think. We were starting a new journey, so I wanted to name it something that was relatable to that. Then I remembered something that fit that criteria. Janus, the Roman God of beginnings and transitions.

"Janus," I said, looking up from my weapon. "I'm naming it Janus."

"Interesting." Coco said. She was about to speak more, but her "scroll" went off. While phones existed on this world, they were called scrolls and were a bit more complicated than back home. Coco looked at her scroll for a few seconds before putting it back into one of her pockets and looking up at us. "Alright, we have a room for you two to stay in for the night."

"What about tomorrow?" Azura asked.

"I'm supposed to bring you to Ozpin tomorrow," she replied, "I'm guessing he's gonna help you two figure out where you'll be staying for the next couple of months. Well, let's go."

We started walking towards the door when I realized I left the gem on the table. I turned around to go get it, when I remembered I had telekinesis. I lifted my hand up towards the gem, and concentrated on it. Then it came flying at me, and I caught it. I looked at it before putting it in my pocket and following the others.

* * *

It took us a bit longer to get to the dorms, as they were on the opposite side of Beacon. On the way there I learned more about Remnant and it's history. Coco told us about a Great War that took place almost eighty years ago that tore Remnant apart. It reminded me of the Second World War. While she didn't go into specifics, she did mention that it was fought for a number of reasons, but the most important one was individualism. The oppressors were defeated and the Kingdoms united against the Grimm. There was also the Faunus Rights Revolution, which was fought because human leaders wanted to deport all of the Faunus to an island not far from Mistral, and the current White Fang Insurgency. The White Fang started off as a peaceful group demanding equal rights for the Faunus, but different leaders took power and turned it into a terrorist group. Velvet even mentioned that the White Fang don't support the Faunus population.

After the short history lesson from Coco and Velv, we arrived at the dorm we were given for the night, which unlike the rest of the dorms this one and a few others were supposed to be for only two people who didn't have a team.

"We'll both come by in the morning and bring you to Ozpin," Coco said while handing me and Azura our own scrolls, "There are supposed to be clean clothes in there for both of you."

"Alright. Thank you so much for everything." I replied.

"No problem. See you in the morning." Coco said as she and Velv turned around and started walking to their own dorm.

The way to unlock the door to the room was by using the scroll, so I held it in front of the lock and unlocked the door. I opened the door and we both walked in. The room was small and really meant for two people. There were two beds and night stands, and on each side of the room was a desk. On one of the desks were a couple sets of clothes for the both of us. Azura walked over to one of the beds, kicked off her shoes and put her scroll, sword, quiver and sheath next to the nearby nightstand and collapsed onto it face first.

"This one is mine." She said, her voice muffled by the pillow she was lying on.

"You don't wanna get out of your dirty clothes?" I asked.

"I don't need to," she replied, "Because I know this is all a dream. There's no reason for it not to be. I'm gonna wake up tomorrow in my bed and I'm gonna go over to your house and hang out like we normally do."

She thought is was all a dream, but I knew that this was all real. The pain I felt after that Ursa struck me was to real to be a dream. But how was I supposed to tell her it wasn't? How would she take it? I walked over to the side of her bed and sat down next to her.

"It isn't a dream Azura." I told her. She rolled over and looked at me.

"That's what dream you would want me to think."

"But I'm me, not dream me."

"That's also what dream you would want me to think."

There wasn't any way I was gonna win this, so I got up off her bed and started to walk over to the other one. Just as I did, she grabbed my arm and held me back.

"If this isn't a dream..." she said quietly, "Can you... I just don't wanna sleep alone."

I knew what she meant. I sat back down on her bed, put Janus and my scroll on the nightstand, took the gem out of my pocked, kicked my shoes off, and layed down next to her. Just as I did, I realized my phone was still in my pocket, so I took it out and I put it on the nightstand as well. I layed back down, facing Azura and looking into her eyes. She just smiled at me before closing her eyes.

 _Please let this be a dream..._ I thought to myself as I closed my eyes.

* * *

As I fell asleep, I opened my eyes, and realized I was standing in that same white nothingness I was in with Summer before I woke up in the forest. This time, snowflakes were falling around me, slowly.

"I'm sorry, it isn't a dream."

I turned around and saw Summer, standing a few yards away from me. She was still wearing her white cloak, but her hood wasn't obstructing her face like last time. She looked as old as I was, and had silver eyes.

"You're not being mysterious like you were last time." I replied.

"Well, at first I wanted to be that mysterious person like I was when you were first here, but then I changed my mind and decided to not be shy like I normally am and talk to you in your head."

"Yeah, just staring at me like that and not saying much kinda creeped me out."

"Yeah, sorry."

We both let out a small chuckle, and an awkward silence followed. We both just looked at each other, not saying anything.

"So..." I decided to break the silence, "You chose me?"

"Yeah, I did," Summer said, "I'm sorry I dragged you here against your will."

"Why did you?"

"You wouldn't understand why."

"Then at least try to explain it to me."

She looked at me, trying to figure out what to say before lowering her head.

"Alright," she said, looking up at me, "The gems, only you are able to retrieve them. When I was alive, I was able to as well. No one else can retrieve them, but anyone can use them. I needed to find someone who could retrieve the gems, but there was no one on Remnant that could. I discovered that there was another world, Earth. I looked there and found you."

"But why am I able to retrieve them?"

"I don't know. I don't even know why I was able to retrieve them." She said as she looked down to her right.

"Alright," I said, "Then tell me everything you know."


	5. Shining Beacon

I stared out the window of the airship, resting my forearms on the handrail and taking in the scenery as we made our way to Beacon once again. I was also thinking about how much our lives had changed three months ago. The morning after we arrived on Remnant, Azura was shocked to realize that none of it was a dream, and didn't take it too well. She eventually returned to her normal, immature self, but I could still tell she was distraught over it.

After we woke up, Ozpin told us that he managed to get us an apartment in Vale. We taught ourselves how to fight, and that was something that was harder than we thought. We had to create our own fighting styles, and since every huntsman and huntress' style was so unique it took longer for us to create one that we could use. Eventually, I managed to create my own fighting style which could be used both aggressively and defensively. I taught Azura how to use it as well for whenever she used her weapon, now named Aeterna Flamma, in its sword form.

Summer also told me everything she knew. She had visions of three gems, and manage to retrieve two but was killed shortly after retrieving the third . Her killer wanted the third gem she retrieved, which meant that someone wanted them as well, which made this mission important. I would soon start having visions of the gems and where they are located, which would happen randomly and could be a few weeks or months apart. This meant that as soon as I had a vision of a gem, I needed to locate it, retrieve it and get out of there before the people who wanted the gems could get to me. I didn't expect my future team to come with me, so I left them out of the plans to get the gems.

"So whatcha doin'?" I turned my head to the left to see Azura walking up next to me. She was wearing a light blue long sleeve shirt, ocean green cargo pants and brown combat boots. She was also wearing a brown belt across her waist, with Aeterna Flamma sheathed on her left and a small pouch on her right, and her quiver containing red dust-tipped arrows on her back. It was her "signature outfit".

As for me, I was wearing a black and red flannel shirt with a dark grey hood and drawstrings, a dark grey shirt underneath, dark blue jeans, grey shoes, a brown belt around my waist and a small, black, single strap backpack on my back. My flannel was unbuttoned all the way down, with my sleeves rolled up to my elbows. On my belt was a couple of pouches, with the largest on the back and the smallest on the left side. Also on the left side of my belt was a sheathed combat knife, which resembled a Kabar. Clipped on the right side was Janus, in a position close enough for me to grab it incase of an emergency.

"Just enjoying the view." I replied, gesturing to the window. We passing over vale on our way to Beacon, and we got an amazing view of the city in the process.

"Better than Berlin?" She asked with a smirk on her face. She already knew what my answer would be but she just wanted to tease me about it.

I was born in Germany, more specifically, Ramstein Air Base. My dad was in the US Air Force and stationed in Germany at the end of the Cold War. That was where he met my Mom, and a few years later they had me and my sister, Marigold. Shortly after after having us, he was transferred back to the US. About a year later, when I was six years old, I met Azura. I visited Berlin with my Mom a few years after my Dad died, and I thought it was amazing. I loved the city, and I wanted to visit it again. I never did get to visit it again, but I would never forget it. I was so excited to go back there that I learned how to speak German, and I spoke it really good.

"It's almost as nice as Berlin." I replied, looking back out the window. I watched as each building, every street passed below us. It did remind me a lot of Berlin, and living here for three months made me miss it so much.

"I can't believe my baby sister is going to Beacon with me!" Me and Azura turned our heads to that voice, and saw a blonde haired girl squeezing the life out of who I presumed to be her younger sister. Her sister had red-black hair and a red cloak on. She looked a couple of years younger than the blonde, and did not look like she was enjoying having the life squeezed out of her.

"Anyways," Azura said, "What do you think it'll be like at Beacon?"

"I think it's gonna be fun," I replied, "We're gonna meet new people, make new friends, all the good stuff about school."

"Are you sure we're gonna make friends?" That question caught me off guard, and I didn't understand what she meant by that.

"What do you mean?"

"What if we don't make any friends? I don't want you to be my only friend like back home." Azura didn't have any friends when I met her. I was her only friend. She was really sad about me graduating high school, and she wanted to go to the same community college I was going to so she would have someone to be with.

"Just stick with me," I told her, "You know I make friends easily, so just follow me and we'll make some friends."

 _"...nefarious criminal Roman Torchwick, who continues to evade authorities,"_ Our attention was drawn to the newscast about some criminal named Torchwick, _"If you have any information on his whereabouts, please contact the Vale Police Department. Back to you, Lisa."_ The newscast changed to a woman and photo of Faunus demonstrators.

"Thank you, Cyril," The news anchor, Lisa, said, "In other news, this Saturday's Faunus Civil Rights protest turned dark when members of the White Fang disrupted the ceremony. The once peaceful organization has now disrupted-"

The newsfeed then cut out and a hologram of a blonde woman appeared. I instantly recognized the woman as Glynda Goodwitch, a professor at Beacon.

"Hello, and welcome to Beacon. My name is Glynda Goodwitch. You are among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy. Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future Huntsmen and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world."

As soon as the hologram of Goodwitch disappeared people began to look at Vale down below. We had been over it for some time, but now people were looking at the city with awe. It seemed, to me at least, that many of them hadn't been to Vale and grew up outside the Kingdoms.

 _You ready for Beacon Ash?_ Summer had been quiet most of the ride to Beacon, until now.

 _Of course. Anything I should know before going in?_ I Replied.

 _No, nothing important. Well, not yet at least._

I was snapped out of my mental conversation by a tall, blonde haired boy running to the back of the airship, holding his hand to his mouth. He ran over to the nearest trash bin and started vomiting into it.

"The view isn't for everyone, I guess." I said jokingly, getting a small laugh out of Azura. The airship then prepared to dock, and everyone on the airship began to move to the nearby airlock. We began to follow.

As we walked to the airlock, the vomiting blonde ran past us, again holding his hand to his mouth. The airlock then opened, and he ran out quickly and began vomiting, again, into the nearest trash bin. I stopped, thinking about whether or not I should make sure he was ok. Then I made up my mind.

"Hey Azura, it's time to make some new friends." I said, walking towards the vomiting blonde. He was still emptying the contents of his stomach when we got to him. "Hey man, you alright?"

"Yeah I'm fine, I've just got motion sickness." He said, turning around to look at us. He was taller than me by a couple of inches, had blue eyes, pale skin and a black hoodie. "Well, I'm Jaune, Jaune Arc."

"Ash Krieger." I said, holding out my hand. Jaune looked at his hand before shaking mine, probably to make sure there was no vomit on it. After the handshake I gestured to Azura. "And this is my best friend, Azura Hood"

"Hi!" She said, giving a short wave to Jaune.

"Hey there!" He said, waving back and smiling.

"We should probably get off the ship before they leave with us still on." I said, gesturing to the outside.

We then walked out of the airlock and towards the school. It felt good being back here, even though we weren't here that long before. The campus was filled with students, new and returning. Somewhere amongst the new students would be our future teammates, our future friends.

"So, where are you guys from?" Jaune asked. Me and Azura had discussed what we would say if this ever came up so we wouldn't be taken off guard.

"We're from a small village called Lowe," I said, "But we've lived here since we were twelve. Lowe was overrun by the Grimm one day and we were separated from our parents. We never saw them again."

"Damn, I'm sorry," Jaune said, "Is that why both of you want to become-"

*KABOOM!*

"WHAT THE HELL!?"

All three of us jumped back, surprised by the sudden explosion. I looked ahead of us and saw the girl with the red cloak from the airship, and another girl covered in soot. This girl did not look too happy about what happened.

"Unbelievable!"The girl said, raising her voice at the red girl while patting the soot off of her body, "This is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about!"

"I'm really, _really_ sorry!" The red-cloaked girl said, apologetic and embarrassed.

"Should we, you know, do something?" Azura said, unsure of what to do. Jaune looked the same way. I didn't know what to do either. I was about to respond when a girl with black hair and a black bow walked up to the two girls.

"Doesn't look like we need to." I said, crossing my arms. The girl in white at first seemed too happy about whatever the black-haired girl was saying, but then seemed to be upset about something, grabbed what looked like a vial of red dust and stormed off. The girl in red then reached her hand out and said something, but I couldn't make out what she said, and just as she did so the girl with the black bow began walking away, apparently without saying anything as the red girl fell to her knees and laid down on the ground.

"Well, it look's like we need to." Jaune said, walking up to the girl. Me and Azura followed him to the Red girl. He then stopped next to her and held out his hand as she looked at him. "Hey, I'm Jaune."

"Ruby," The young girl said, taking Jaune's hand and standing up, "Aren't you the guy that threw up on the ship?"

"Yup! The one and only vomit boy!" I said, walking up right next to Jaune and patting him on the back. "He has motion sickness, so I can't blame him for vomiting all over the airship."

"Motion sickness, huh?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah..."Jaune said, looking down at his shoes embarrassed.

As they continued their conversation, something about the young red girl caught my attention. Her outfit, a black tunic with a red cloak, seemed very familiar. It looked like Summer's outfit, with only minor differences like the color of the cloak. Then I noticed her eyes.

 _Silver..._

"I'm Azura Hood!" Azura's voice snapped me out of my thoughts, and then she pointed her finger at me. "And this is Ash Krieger!"

"Ruby Rose."

 _Holy shit..._

Was she somehow related to summer? She had to be. Not only did she dress like her but she had the same last name and the same exact eyes! They were just like Summer's.

They were just like mine...

"You have silver eyes too?" Ruby asked me, looking at my eyes.

"Yeah," I replied, "They're just like my mom's eyes."

"Really?" She asked, "I have my mom's eyes too!"

It was pretty safe to say that Ruby was Summer's daughter. I would just have to ask Summer if this was true. She never told me she had any kids, or if she ever married. Maybe she just wanted me to concentrate on my mission? Or maybe she didn't remember ever having kids. Or maybe she didn't want me to know at all. But if she didn't want me to know then why didn't she stop me from talking to Ruby? Sure, there wasn't much she could do, but she could have told me not to talk to her. That was the only thing she could do, as far as I knew. She had to know what I was thinking right now, but she wasn't saying anything. So right now, it was just me, Azura, and our new friends.

* * *

"All I'm saying is that motion sickness is a much more common problem than people let on!" Jaune told us, getting us to understand his motion sickness.

"Look, I'm sorry. Vomit Boy was the first thing that came to mind." Ruby told him.

"It was also the first thing that came to my mind." Azura said.

"Vomiting blonde was the first thing I thought of."

"Oh yeah? What if I called you Crater Face, Blitzkrieg and Goldfish?" He retorted with a look of annoyance on his face.

"That explosion was an accident!" Ruby defended.

"He called you Goldfish." I said to Azura, giggling. She shoved her elbow into my rib.

"Well, the name's Jaune Arc. Short, sweet and rolls off the tongue. The ladies love it!"

"Do they?" Ruby asked skeptically.

"They will! Well, I-I hope they will. My mom always says that..." He trailed off before letting out a defeated sigh. "Never mind."

Ruby, Azura and I all giggled at Jaune's awkwardness for a second, before an awkward silence fell upon us. The Ruby reached for something on her back.

"So... I got this." She said, unfolding a massive scythe and stabbing it into the ground.

"Is that a scythe!?" Jaune asked, struck with awe by the weapon.

"It is also a customizable, high impact sniper rifle!" Ruby replied, hoisting the giant weapon into her hands.

"A-wha...?" Jaune said, confused. Then Ruby cocked it while smiling.

"It's also a gun."

"That's cool!"

"Cool? That's friggin' awesome!" Azura exclaimed, staring at the weapon with amazement.

And I was just sitting there, jealous of the young girl's weapon, which was four times better than mine.

"So, what've you got?" Ruby asked us. Me and Azura both motioned to Jaune to present his weapon first. We were both interested to see what he had, and I was ready this time to see my weapon be outclassed by everyone else's. He grabbed his sword and pulled it out of it's sheath.

"I got this sword!"

Ruby looked at it, interested in the blonde's longsword. Jaune then smirked and grasped his sheath.

"Yeah, and I got a shield, too!" He said, expanding the sheath into a heater shield with two crescent arcs on it.

"So, what do they do?" Ruby asked, touching the shield with curiosity. When she did, the shield sprung shut, to Jaune's surprise. He fumbled with his shield, trying to catch it and get ahold of his weapon, and stepped back to try and catch it. He finally caught it and looked at us, collapsing his shield back into its sheath form and putting it on his belt.

"Well, the shield gets smaller, so when I get tired of carrying it I could just, you know, put it away..." He said, trailing off.

"But wouldn't it weigh the same?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah, you're right." Jaune said, dejectedly and looking down at the ground.

"So what do you two have?" Ruby asked us. Before I could even move my hand to grab Janus, Azura took Aeterna out of it's sheath.

"Mine's a sword that turns into a bow!" She said, shifting the weapon into its bow form. Ruby stared at it in awe, then looked at me.

"And yours?" The young weapons geek asked me. I then grabbed Janus off my belt.

"I've got this." I said, activating the white-bladed weapon.

"Oh my God that is so cool!" Ruby exclaimed, staring at Janus. "How did you get that to work!?"

"That would take a long time to explain, but it's powered by a dust crystal." I couldn't really tell them that it was powered by a gem that teleported me and Azura here, because not only would they not believe me, our secret could get people killed. Well, according to Ozpin, at least. So I just lied to them, that was really the only thing I could do.

"I wanna know so bad! I'm kind of a dork when it comes to weapons. I even went overboard when designing Crescent Rose." Ruby said, holding up her weapon.

"Wait, you MADE that?" Jaune asked.

"Of course!" Ruby replied, "All students at Signal forge their own weapons! Didn't you make yours?"

"Well, it's a hand-me-down. My great-great- grandfather used it during the war." Jaune said very depressed. Probably because he thought his weapon wasn't as cool as ours.

"Sounds more like a family heirloom to me!" Ruby told him, "Well, I like it! Not many people have an appreciation for the classics these days."

"Yeah, the classics..."

"So, why did you guys help me out back there?" Ruby asked.

"Why not?" Jaune replied, "My mom always says, 'strangers are just friends you haven't met yet'."

"Hey, where are we going?" Ruby asked.

"I don't know, I was following you."Jaune replied. They then turned to me and Azura.

"Hey, we just got here too!" Azura said defensively.

"Maybe there's a directory?" I suggested.

"Maybe a food court? Some kind of recognizable landmark?"

* * *

We eventually figured out where to go after a few minutes of looking around and asking people. We headed to the school's amphitheater, which wasn't too far from where we were before. I actually remember passing this building three months ago when me and Azura were leaving Beacon. The four of us entered the amphitheater together to find a large crowd of people, most likely the incoming first year students, waiting inside. There was a lot of people there, probably around a hundred. There wasn't as much people as I thought there would be. That may have been because being a Huntsman or a Huntress was one of the most dangerous jobs on Remnant, and not a lot of people wanted to, or could, fight the Grimm with a high chance of dying. Everyone was talking to each other, playing games on their scrolls, looking around for some of their friends.

"Ruby, over here!" We heard a voice call from in front of us. The voice came from a blonde haired girl, the same one from the airship, who was waving to Ruby. "I saved you a spot!"

"Hey, you guys should come meet my sister!" Ruby said to us as she grabbed Jaune by the wrist and starting walking away with him. "Come on!"

"Whoa!"

Me and Azura followed Ruby, who was dragging Jaune with her, to her sister. It was when we finally got to the blonde I got a good look at her. She was about Azura's height, had long, messy blonde hair with a small cowlick at the top, a pale complexion and lilac eyes. She also had a big pair of-

"Guys, this is my sister, Yang. Yang, these are my new friends, Ash, Azura and Jaune." Ruby introduced.

"Aw, my baby sister made friends!" Yang said happily.

"Only after you ditched me and I exploded." Ruby said angrily.

"Yikes! You had a meltdown already?"

"No, I literally exploded a hole in front of the school! And there was some fire, and I think some ice...?"

Yang then leaned in, smiling broadly at Ruby.

"Are you being sarcastic?" Yang asked her younger sister.

"I wish! I tripped over some crabby girl's luggage, and then she yelled at me, and then I sneezed, and then I exploded, and then she yelled at me again, and I felt really, really bad, and I just wanted her to stop yelling at me!" None of us realized it, but said girl was standing right behind us, and heard everything.

" **YOU!** "

The sudden and unexpected voice of the caught not only Ruby off guard, but me as well. Ruby jumped into her sister's arms, and I jumped into Jaune's.

"GAAAH!"

"OH GOD! IT'S HAPPENING AGAIN!"

"You were lucky you weren't blown off the side of the cliff!" The girl scolded Ruby harshly. A sudden look of realization came to Yang's face.

"Oh my God, you really exploded." Yang said to her sister. As she said this I realized that I was in Jaune's arms, so I stepped back onto the ground and looked at the angry girl.

"Look, it was an accident, and she apolo-"

"Shut up! This doesn't concern you!" The angry girl cut me off, and then shoved a pamphlet into Ruby's face

"The Schnee Dust Company is not responsible for any injuries or damages sustained while operating a Schnee Dust Company product. Although not mandatory, the Schnee Family highly encourages customers to read and familiarize themselves with this easy to follow guide to Dust applications and practices in the field."

"Heilige scheiße..." I muttered to myself.

"You really wanna start making things up to me?"

"Absolutely?"

"Read this and don't ever speak to me again."

"Don't you think that's a little harsh?" Azura asked, to which the angry girl turned to her.

"Don't you think you should be minding your own business?"

"Look, it sounds like you guys got off on the wrong foot. Why don't you start over and try to be friends?" Yang suggested.

"Yeah! Great idea sis!" Ruby then held out her hand to the girl. "Hello Weiss! I'm Ruby! Wanna hang out? We can go shopping for school supplies!"

So this angry girl's name was Weiss, that was good to know. Weiss then acted enthusiastically about Ruby's offer.

"Yeah! And we can paint our nails and try on clothes and talk about cute boys, like tall, blond and scraggly right here!"

"Wow, really!?"

"NO."

Suddenly we heard the sound of someone tapping a microphone, and we looked up to the stage to see Ozpin standing on the stage. Glynda Goodwitch was standing beside him. Ozpin adjusted his glasses and began to speak to everyone.

"I'll... keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction."

The students in the room began to whisper to one another about what Ozpin what Ozpin just said. Even I was surprised by his choice of words. I was expecting him to be more welcoming to the incoming students, as was everyone else. Why he chose to say what he said was beyond me, but I assumed he said this to every class. He then continued speaking.

"You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."

He then stepped off the stage, and Glynda took to the microphone.

"You will gather in the ballroom tonight; tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed." And with that, she walked off the stage after Ozpin.

"What the hell was that?" I asked, confused about what Ozpin just said.

"Yeah, he seemed kind of... off." Yang said.

"It was like he wasn't even there." Ruby commented.

"I'm a natural blonde, you know." Jaune said to Weiss, who just facepalmed.


	6. Super Sleepover

Following Ozpin's bizarre speech at the amphitheater, me, Azura and our new friends decided to go to the dining hall and grab a bite to eat before going to the ballroom. We learned a lot about our new friends. Ruby and Yang were half sisters and grew up on the island of Patch, Yang loved to make bad puns, and Jaune grew up on a farm and was related to several heroic Huntsmen and Huntresses. He was also bad at picking up women, which became clear after his failed attempts to win over Weiss and Ruby. We were already getting along really well with each other.

A few things were on my mind, however, and that was Ruby's relation to Summer and my now silver eyes. I was certain that she was Summer's daughter, and when I tried to ask Summer about Ruby I got no response. I was use to Summer not answering me when I needed her, but those times I wasn't asking Summer about her possible daughter. I stopped trying to contact Summer after a few tries, but after meeting Ruby I began to question my new eye color. Why had my eyes suddenly go from brown to silver? Was it because I had the soul of Summer Rose residing in me? Or was there something I wasn't being told? I doubted that it was the latter, so I had to assume that it was a side effect of carrying Summer's soul.

After we were done eating and talking we looked around the school before heading to the ballroom and getting ready for bed. Some people were talking to each other, others were already trying to sleep. I was one of those people trying to sleep. Azura was still awake and was telling me about how excited she was for the initiation. I was lying on the ground, with my hands resting behind my head, waiting for her to finally go to sleep. Azura, however, was sitting up on her sleeping bag, talking away.

"So maybe we can get on a team together, maybe even be partners!" Azura said very excitedly.

"Uh-huh..." I replied drowsily.

"Or if I can't find you, maybe Ruby, Yang or Jaune!"

"Mhmm..."

"But what if I don't find you or them!? What do I do!?"

"Yup..."

"Ash!" Azura said very angrily, "Are you even listening to me!?"

I rolled my head over to my right and looked at her in the eyes before replying to her. She did look angry at me for "not listening" when, in fact, I had been paying attention this whole time to what she was saying, somehow.

"Yes, I am," I replied dryly, "You are really excited about tomorrow and really want to be on my team, or be my partner. But you wouldn't mind being on Jaune's, Ruby's or Yang's team. You are also afraid of not finding of any of us or getting on some other team without us."

She didn't say anything after I finished talking, she just stared at me, with some anger still on her face. For a second I wondered if I had just pissed her off somehow.

"Ok you win." She finally said to me after a few seconds, before finally laying down in her sleeping bag. "But you have to promise me that the first thing you will do tomorrow is to find me, ok?"

"Yeah, I promise. First thing." I replied, ready to doze off. I then rolled onto my left side, and closed my eyes.

"Ok, 'night Ash."

"'Night Azura..."

I finally had the chance to sleep. Most of the other students were already sleeping, with only a few talking amongst each other very quietly. Sleep would finally come. I could feel myself falling asleep-

"Cut it out!"

...

 _You've gotta be kidding me._

"What in the world is going on over here!? Don't you realize some of us are trying to sleep?"

 _Jesus-fucking-Christ!_

"Oh not you again!"

 _Motherfucking-just... why?_

I opened my eyes slightly, and saw the source of the loud noises. Ruby, Yang, the black haired girl from earlier, with the bow still on her head, and the one and only Ice Queen. I let out a small groan as soon as I saw Weiss. But to be honest, she did have a point.

"Shhh! Guys, she's right!" Ruby said, seemingly very worried about waking anyone else. "People are trying to sleep!"

"Oh, now you're on my side!"

"I was always on your side!"

 _Please go to bed already..._

"Yeah, what's your problem with my sister? She's only trying to be nice!"

"She's a hazard to my health!"

 _For fuck's sake, people._

Then, the black-haired girl put down a book she was holding and picked up a candle, the source of light for her book reading, before blowing it immediately returned to that part of the room. I thanked the sleep gods for the silence that followed, with the exception of the sounds of a very angry girl stomping away. I closed my eyes again, and drifted away into sleep.

* * *

I opened my eyes to realize that I had returned to the white nothingness. I wasn't really surprised, I had come here alot the past few months. It was snowing, like it was the first night on Remnant. Summer was always here whenever I came here. I didn't have to look around to find Summer as she was standing in front of me with her back to me. She had the hood of her white cloak covering her head. Normally she would face me and we would then either be training or discussing the gems.

"Summer?" I asked, but she did not say anything, nor did she acknowledge my existence. I began slowly walking towards her.

"Summer?" I called her name again, hoping this time to get her attention. She just continued to face away from me. I walked up to her and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Summ-"

She jumped in surprise when I tapped her on the shoulder and turned around to face me. At first I was confused as to why she was spooked by me. She always knew when I would be here and would never be surprised by me. In fact, sometimes she would be behind me and jump onto my back as soon as I would arrive. Then I noticed what looked like a stream of tears rolling down her face. Was she crying?

"Are you ok?" I asked.

"Yeah..." She replied while wiping away her tears and sniffling. "Yeah I'm- I'm ok."

Obviously I didn't believe her. She was crying about something, why would she cry for no reason? I thought I saw something glowing in her right hand, but a quick glance made me realize that there was nothing there.

"You sure?" I asked. She suddenly began sobbing uncontrollably.

"No, no I'm not!" She then fell to her knees and buried her head in her hands. "How could I have taken that mission!? I- Ruby- I'm so sorry!"

I went down on my knees and enveloped her in my arms. She continued sobbing as she buried her head into my chest and as I tried to calm her down. I opened my mouth to speak but was interrupted by Summer.

"Ruby is my daughter. I went on a mission and I never came back. Imagine what that was like on her! She grew up without her mother! How could I do that to her!?"

"It wasn't your fa-"

"It was completely my fault!" She yelled, looking up into my eyes, tears streaming down her face. "If I never took that mission- If I stopped being a Huntress I would still be there for Ruby!"

She continued sobbing and buried her face back into my chest, I didn't know what to say or what to do. I was in Ruby's position with the loss of a parent, not Summer's. What was I supposed to do? After another minute of sobbing Summer finally spoke up.

"I need you to do me a favor, Ash." Summer said, letting out a few sniffles. "I need you to protect Ruby from everything you can. I need you to do everything in your power to protect my daughter from harm. I need you to promise me that you will not let Ruby's fate be the same as mine. Can you promise me that?"

I looked at Summer in the eyes, the same silver eyes I had, the same silver eyes that Ruby had. I took her hands, and I made her a promise.

"I promise you that I will do everything I can do to protect Ruby, and I will put her life over my own. I will not break that promise, ever."

Summer gave me a small smile, and a few more tears fell from her eyes.

"Thank you, Ash." Summer said softly, sounding like she was about to cry again. "Thank You."

She then stood up, once again wiping away her tears, and I stood up as well.

"You should probably get going." Summer told me. "There isn't anything to do or talk about tonight."

"Ok," I replied, "And if you ever need me for anything don't hesitate to ask."

I took a couple steps back, lowered my head and closed my eyes.

"One more thing."

I opened my eyes and looked back up at Summer. She had stopped, but she had some look of worry on her face.

"We both know what being a Hunter entails. No matter what happens, no matter what situation you are in, keep moving forward."

"Ok, I will."

I then closed my eyes and lowered my head. And with that I left the snowy sanctuary.

* * *

 _"Ash, wake up!"_

"Uuugh..."

 _"Aaash!"_

"Azura, lemme sleep..."

 _"Ashiiieee!"_

I was use to Azura shaking me whenever she wanted me to wake up. She never called me "Ashie", though. I then realized that it wasn't Azura after listening to the voice. I started to open my eyes and I saw yellow and purple above me.

 _"Wake up sleepy!"_

"No I wanna sleep..." I said, opening my eyes more. I saw the same yellow and purple above me, but I saw it clearer than before. The yellow and purple was Yang. Yang was waking me up, but why?

"Don't you ever get tired of sleeping?" Yang asked with a smirk on her face. I immediately let out a small groan at the terrible pun I had just heard.

"No, I don't." I replied, sitting upright and rubbing my eyes. "What times is it?"

"Six o'clock in the morning."

 _Why do you people hate sleep?_

"What's up?" I asked, keeping my annoyance of being woken up suppressed.

"I was just wondering if you wanted to go get something to eat before we have initiation."

As much as I loved sleeping, I really wanted to go eat food. I also wanted to get to know my friends more, so this was a good opportunity to get to know Yang.

"Yeah, sure. Why not?" I replied, much to Yang's delight.

"Great! Just get ready and meet me outside the ballroom, ok?" She told me, standing up from a crouched position and walking away. I realized that she was already dressed and ready to go. I looked around and realized that most of the first years were still asleep, with only a few people gone. They probably had the same idea as Yang, or they could have been preparing for initiation. I looked at Azura, who was still dead asleep. I didn't want to wake her up, so I got up, grabbed my clothes, and left to go get changed.


	7. The First Step

So after I got dressed Yang and I went to the dining hall to go have breakfast. Loads of other people were already there, including first years. We grabbed our food and found a table with not too many people sitting at it. Yang wanted to get to know me more, and there was no reason I would say no to that other than to be a complete dick. I honestly didn't want to be an asshole to someone on the first day, no one did.

"So you two have know each other all your lives?" Yang asked me. I told her about how Azura and I had known each other since we were kids, since I was six years old.

"Yeah, we are inseparable at this point. You could say we are brother and sister."

I considered Azura a part of my family. She was there for me and I was there for her. We couldn't leave the other's side. If we had to we would die together.

"What about you?" I asked the blonde sitting across from me. "Anything interesting about you?"

"Well..." She began, grinning as she thought of a story to tell. "When I was seven I accidentally lit some curtains-"

There was suddenly a loud crashing sound that interrupted Yang, which sounded like a food tray being dropped on the ground.

"What the hell is your problem!?"

A loud, pissed off voice sounded following the loud crashing sound. Me and Yang both looked towards the direction of the yelling, which was to my right. The source of the crashing and yelling was two students. One was pale and at least taller than me by a head, wearing armor with what looked like a bird on it. The other was also pail with light blue hair and was maybe an inch or two shorter than Yang wearing a brown fringe poncho, black shorts and a belt around her waist which holstered a knife and a small tomahawk axe.

She also had wolf ears from what I could tell. When I noticed that, I instantly knew what was going on.

"Son of a..." I whispered to myself. I then got up and was about to walk over to intervene when Yang spoke up.

"What are you doing?" She asked me.

"I'm not gonna let that just slide." I replied. At first I thought Yang didn't care about the girl, but then I remembered that Yang wasn't a bitch like my ex girlfriend. If anything she probably didn't want a fight to start just before initiation.

Yang shot a glance to the girl and the douche before looking back at me.

"Alright, just don't do anything stupid." She told me. I gave her a quick nod before going off to end the confrontation.

The girl was obviously pissed and it didn't seem like she was going to put up with the douche. Said douche seemed much more relaxed and it didn't look like he gave a shit about what she was saying.

"That doesn't give you the right to do that!"

"Of course I do. What are you gonna do about it, wolf ears?"

 _Hello class, and welcome to How To Be An Asshole 101_ , I thought to myself. I had encountered people like this before over the past few months. It angered me seeing this happen, though what was happening was not as bad as what I saw before.

"What is going on here?" I asked as I approached the two.

"This smug prick thought it would be funny to knock my food out of my hands!" The girl said with anger clear in her voice while pointing at the asshole.

"Come on," He replied, seemingly talking to me, "It was funny."

"No it wasn't." I replied. The boy then looked at me like I just offended him.

"Your one of those people who like Faunus, aren't you?"

Suspicions confirmed. This guy was one of those people.

"Yeah, I am" I replied, "You have a problem with that?"

He then walked right up to me and looked down at me. It was only now that I realized how tall he was.

"Actually I do." He said menacingly.

I looked around and noticed some people were looking at us. It wasn't much, but I didn't want to start a fight. I looked over at the girl and she shook her head slightly, probably telling me not to take this any further.

We both turned away from the man and started walking away, back over to where Yang was. I was about to say something to the girl when I heard him speak up.

"What's the matter? Too much of a coward?"

I stopped dead in my tracks, but I did not turn to face him. Instead I raised my right hand and focused on his foot with my mind. I then moved my fingers slightly, forcing his foot off the ground. I tried not to laugh as he let out a quick shout while falling to the floor.

There was a loud crash followed by some laughter coming from the people watching. I turned around to see the boy lying on the ground. The girl was trying to contain her laughter. Key word is trying.

I walked up and knelt down next to him. He raised his head and looked at me. He was obviously not happy with what I just did.

"Let's get one thing straight," I said to him in a low voice, "You fuck with me or anyone again... Well, let's just say it won't be fun for you. Ok?"

The only sound that came out of him was a short groan as he let his head fall back on the ground. I got up and walked back to the girl, who had finally managed to compose herself. Her arms were crossed and she had the biggest smile on her face.

"Thank you for that," She said to me, "I never really get help from anyone when someone does something stupid like that."

"Well unlike him I respect Faunus." I told her, "I don't understand why people are treated differently because they have wolf ears or a cat tail."

I never really did understand the racism towards the Faunus and racism in general. It just never made sense to me. Hating someone only because they are different to you was incredibly stupid.

"I don't think anyone with a brain really understands it." She said while she shook her head. "I should probably go get some more food before initiation."

"You're a first year as well?"

"Yeah, you too?" She asked.

"Yeah." A few seconds of awkward silence followed so I decided to break that silence. "You should probably get your food before we have to get ready for initiation. I don't wanna keep you from that or anything."

"Yeah, yeah I should." She said. "Oh, by the way, I'm Nila. Nila Rolfe."

"Ash Krieger." I replied. It was now that I noticed her yellow eyes. I thought they looked beautiful. "You know team Ash has a few open positions. If you need a team..."

She nodded her head in acceptance to my offer. I noticed that she hadn't stopped smiling the whole time we were talking.

"Ok, I'll consider it." She said. It was at this point that she started off to go get her food. "I'll see you around."

"Yeah, you too."

I walked back over to to Yang, who had finished her food and had her head rested against her hand.

"So what was that about?" She asked me as I sat down.

"The typical racist bullshit towards the Faunus." I replied. I then started to eat the rest of my food.

"No I meant why did that guy fall all of a sudden?"

"Oh that," I said after swallowing some food, "My semblance is telekinesis, so I can move things without touching them. What happened back there was me lifting his foot off the ground to make him fall."

"So you can move things without touching them?" It seemed like she wanted me to show her, so I raised up my hand and concentrated on her empty food tray. I then made it levitate a foot above the table.

"Yup." I replied. I then slowly put the tray back on the table. "Now I believe you were about to say that you accidentally lit your curtains on fire?"

Yang then told me the story of how she accidentally lit the curtains in her room on fire when she got angry one time. Apparently she tends to catch fire when she gets angry. We both thought it was funny, but according to Yang her dad didn't feel the same way. She then told me some stories about her dad. He seemed like a very nice and funny guy. After I finished my food we both got up and started walking to the locker room to get ready for initiation.

* * *

I had my belt and small backpack on while I was checking Janus to make sure he worked properly, and Azura was checking her arrows and Aeterna Flamma. I was sitting on a bench in the locker room with all the other first years. I had opened up one of the compartments on the lower portion of the hilt to make sure that everything was where it should be and that nothing was broken. Everything seemed to be in the right place and functioning properly, so I closed the compartment and I put the screw keeping the plate in it's place and started to screw it back in with a screwdriver.

"Ash I'm nervous." Azura said suddenly and quickly.

"I'm nervous too," I replied, "Just don't let it get to you."

I didn't take my eyes off Janus while I tightened the screw keeping the compartment from opening. I heard Azura sheathe Aeterna Flamma and close the locker she was assigned.

"What are you doing?" She asked walking up to me.

"Just making sure that Janus works before initiation begins. I don't want to be killing Grimm and suddenly have him go out on me."

After tightening the screw completely, I set down the screw driver and angled Janus in a way that it wouldn't hit me or my locker when I ignited it. I turned it on, watching the meter-long white blade pop out. Janus hummed and flickered as the blade stayed on. I then deactivated Janus and put the screwdriver back into the locker.

"How did you make that?"

I looked to my left and I saw Weiss Schnee looking at Janus. I assumed it had to do with how Janus was the only one of it's kind to work. Maybe she wanted to know so her family's company could reproduce similar weapons.

"That is something I won't divulge." I replied.

"Why not?" She questioned in a scolding tone.

"Because Snowflake, the design is not for sale for anyone. Especially you."

She then gave me an angry look and stormed off back the way she came. She could have tried to convince me more but she probably had to get ready some more. I chuckled a bit, then shut my locker and clipped Janus to my belt.

"I hope she doesn't constantly ask me about Janus for the next four years." I said to Azura.

"I hope she isn't such a bitch for the next four years." Azura replied. We could both agree that we both did not like Weiss Schnee, but deep down I hoped that she would become nicer. I don't understand why, I just did.

"So what do we do when we get out there?" Azura asked suddenly, "Do we try to find each other or do we make our way to wherever we are suppose to go?"

What were we supposed to do? All I really knew was that we had to find relics or something. In my mind the safest thing to do would be to just try to find the relics and get out of there.

"We should try to locate whatever we are suppose to find and try to find other students in the process. It would be best if we don't get lost trying to find each other. If they drop us off in the forest near each other like I think they will then we find each other and get together with a few other people and find these relics I've been hearing about."

Before Azura could reply we heard a yelp come from the direction Weiss stormed off to. We both looked over to see Jaune hanging from a locker by his hood from what appeared to be a gold and red spear. I then noticed Weiss and some other girl who was tall and had long red hair.

"I'm Sorry!"

 _Oh great, it's Captain Canada,_ I thought to myself. The girl look familiar, I just didn't know why. Then we heard the voice of Glynda Goodwitch then played over the intercom.

"Would all first-year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation? Again, all first-year students report to Beacon Cliff immediately."

It was time. I looked at Azura, who was now looked more nervous than before.

"Relax Goldfish," I told her while resting my arm on her shoulder, "We'll be fine, ok?"

She gave me a displeased look, probably because I called her by the nickname Jaune gave her. I could feel the anger resonating from her. I felt like I had made a terrible mistake.

"Call me Goldfish again and I will castrate you in your fucking sleep."

Let's just say I did what she said for the next fifteen minutes, ok? Good. That is all that needs to be said.

* * *

We then walked out of the locker room and to the Beacon Cliff, where our first steps to becoming Huntsmen and Huntresses would take place. We were all nervous, excited, or just didn't know how to feel. We all knew that initiation was gonna be hard, but we also knew we would survive. This wasn't gonna be a massacre because we were all trained in some way to fight and not die. Though I was confused as to why there were no dropships nearby. You would think that if we were gonna be dropped off into a forest infested with Grimm that the dropships would be there waiting for us.

Man was I surprised.

All of the first year students were standing on silver tiles in front of Ozpin and Goodwitch. The wind was blowing, and the forest was as daunting as ever. I looked to my right towards all the students. I was on the leftmost tile, with Azura on my immediate right. To her right was some smug-looking boy in tan-colored armor. He appeared to have some sort of sword. Next to him was Nila. She looked at me and waved at me with a smile on her face. I waved back and looked at the others. I saw the douche from earlier, another boy with what looked like a mohawk, Ruby, Yang, Jaune, a guy in a green jacket, a red head with a pink skirt, the girl with the bow on her head, some dude with a sniper rifle, and a few others. Then Ozpin started speaking.

"For years, you have trained to become warriors..."

 _Except me and Azura, who have only had a few months of training._

"...and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."

 _Fuck fuck fuck, why am I doing this?_

"Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of teams," Glynda said, "Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates... today."

 _Well shit._

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon," Ozpin told us, "So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well. That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

That didn't surprise me, as I had known this since me and Azura came here three months ago. However, everyone else was either surprised or telling everyone else that they knew that.

"You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. You will guard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"

Jaune attempted to get Ozpin's attention, but he just ignored him.

"Good! Now, take your positions."

"What does he mean by that?" Azura asked. I was just as confused as she was. Then I heard Jaune ask Ozpin something.

"Uh, sir? I've got, um... a question. So, this landing... strategy thing... Uh, wha-what is it? You're, like, dropping us off or something?"

"No. You will be falling."

"Well," I said out loud, "That's good to kn-"

Than it stuck me what was about to happen.

"Wait, what did he just- SAAAYYY!?"

I could not finish my sentence properly as I was sent flying into the air from my tile. I immediately regretted everything.

Now you see, I had no idea what to do, so I just kept flying through the air. I was flipping through the air uncontrollably, and every time I manage to look back at the cliff I could see a new student being flung into the air. Then it occurred to me what Ozpin meant by "landing strategy."

This was gonna hurt.


	8. The Emerald Forest

"FUCK!"

I slammed into a tree as I fell out of the sky to the ground below, hard enough to probably take out a good amount of my Aura.

"SHIT!"

I then proceeded to hit every tree branch humanly possible on the way down. And I mean every one of them as the wind was knocked out of me. I couldn't tell how high up I was, or if I was even close to the ground when I suddenly stopped falling.

I was stunned and my vision was blurred; as the world started to come back to me I realized that I was upside down, suspended about five and a half feet from the ground. I then looked in the direction of my feet and saw that my right leg was stuck between two branches.

"Oh for fucks sake..." I said in complete frustration. I swung myself up and grabbed a hold of my trapped leg. I then proceeded to shake my leg out to no avail. I then tried to break part of the branch, but it was too thick for me to break.

"God-fucking-DAMMIT!" I yell angrily. "Oh you don't need to know anything Ash, you will be perfectly fine at initiation. I can help you and your best friend and house you at my combat school. But I can only do that after I THROW YOU INTO THE FUCKING AIR WITHOUT ANY WARNING INTO A FOREST INFESTED WITH FUCKING GRIMM!"

I felt as though my imitations of Summer and Ozpin were spot on. I was angry that they forgot to mention that I would be launched into a forest that had as much things in it that could kill you as Australia did.

Ok that was a lie. Australia has three times as many things that could kill you.

I then heard some rustling coming from a few bushes near me and I froze. I was in the middle of a forest full of some very hungry Grimm, and I was sure that I landed nowhere near anyone. There was no way that I was going to be able to fight off a Grimm while hanging upside down from a tree. I was hoping that it was just another student who enjoyed to scare the living daylights out of people. I heard the rustling again. This time it was closer, and I could see the bushes moving.

And then something came out of the bush, and a sigh of relief escaped my mouth as I saw a girl with blue hair and wolf ears come out of the bushes. The girl let out a giggle at what she saw.

"I knew I recognized that voice." She said.

It was Nila, and man was I happy to see her.

"For a second there I thought you were a hungry Grimm." I said to her, still hanging from the tree.

She walked over to me with a clear smirk on her face, probably because of my current situation. She looked up at my feet and then back down at me.

"You didn't have a landing strategy, did you?" She asked while she crossed her arms.

"You could say that..." I replied, rubbing the back of my neck. I then remembered the situation I was in. "Is there anyway you could help me down?"

"No, I don't," She replied, shaking her head, "What about that white fire thingy I saw you messing with in the lockers?"

I was about to ask her what she was talking about, but I realized what she meant. She was talking about Janus, which was still on my belt...

And able to slice through a tree branch...

 _Aren't I an idiot_ , I thought to myself.

I reached for Janus, unclipped him from my belt and ignited the blade. I then look at Nila, who was rightfully face palming.

"We speak of this to no one," I told her, "Oh and you might want to back up a bit."

She backed up a few feet and I swung myself up and grabbed a hold of the branch. I then raised Janus to the branch and sliced through it. The part of the branch I sliced off fell to the ground and my foot was finally freed. I then let go of the other part of the branch and landed on my feet. I deactivated Janus and clipped him back to my belt.

"So where do we go now?" Nila asked, looking around. Where were we supposed to go? Did Ozpin expect us to walk around the forest until we found what we were looking for? Maybe we were going to get a hint or something. I could take a guess as to where we were suppose to go, and maybe we could find some other students in the process. Or we could get lost and die in a forest full of Grimm.

Unfortunately it was a risk we had to take.

"Well, which way were you heading?" I asked Nila.

"When I was in the air I saw a clearing and what looked like some ruins over that way, so I started walking to it" She pointed to her left as she spoke, "But when I heard you I changed my direction and came over here."

Whatever those ruins were could have been what we were looking for, so we had to go there before anything else.

"Alright, lead the way." I replied. She nodded and we walked off in the direction of the ruins. Inside I hoped that we wouldn't encounter much Grimm, or any for that matter, but I knew that we would encounter at least one. It was just a matter of time before we came across one.

* * *

We had been walking for about fifteen minutes and we had already heard a few gunshots and explosions. Nila and I assumed that the other students had also encountered the Grimm. I started to get concerned about Azura. Was she ok? There was no real way for me to know other than finding her. I knew she could handle herself, but there is no way to stop that feeling of concern for you get when a friend or family member is separated from you in a situation like this.

"We should be coming up on it soon." Nila told me as she stepped over a tree root.

We had yet to encounter any Grimm, and that was a good and bad thing. It was good because we weren't in any more danger yet, but it was bad because we could encounter the Grimm at any moment.

I didn't know anything about Nila, and she sure as hell didn't know anything about me, so I decided to try and learn some more about her until we made it to the ruins.

"So what made you want to become a Huntress?" I asked her

"My mother was a Huntress," She replied, "You?"

"I wanted to help people. Protect those who can't fight for themselves."

That was semi-true. It was part of the reason I had wanted to join the military, the other part being my father. The main reason I joined Beacon was because me and Azura didn't really have a choice. Either we helped Ozpin and he helped us, or we said no and be out on our own in some place we didn't know anything about. But as those three months went on I realized that I could help people here like the way I wanted back on Earth.

"Stop!"

Nila suddenly stopped and extended her arm as if to stop me from moving if I weren't paying attention.

"What is it?" I asked, looking around for whatever put Nila on alert. Then I saw a bush move in front of us.

Nila unsheathed her tomahawk and knife, and I unclipped Janus from my belt and activated him. The bush moved again and I raised Janus, ready to fight whatever was about to come out of that bush. And it came out of the bush...

And by it I mean a small rabbit.

I lowered and deactivated my weapon and shot Nila a disappointing look. Said Faunus was looking around confused.

"Stay calm," I said, "It can probably smell fear."

She then shook her head and looked at me.

"Nonono, I heard a growl."

I quickly looked around at everything in front of me and saw nothing but bushes and trees.

"Look I don't see anything. We should probably get moving." I told her. She turned around to look at me with a look of frustration on her face. However, just as she looked at me her eyes widened in fear.

"GET DOWN!"

She quickly pushed me away from where I was standing. At first I wondered why she pushed me back, but I got my answer when saw something black with white claws passed my head by a few inches as I stumbled back. As Nila ducked to avoid it I realized it was an arm of a Grimm.

I stopped myself from stumbling backwards as I took in the monster. Bone-like spikes protruded from it's back. It's sharp white claws on its paws looked deadly as they gleamed in the afternoon sun. It was the an average sized Beowolf. I raised my hand at it and telekinetically pushed it into a tree about thirty feet away. As it hit the tree I realized there was seven more Beowolves behind us, one of which was larger than the others. I reignited Janus and prepared to attack the Grimm.

"Save your energy," Nila said, walking in front of me, "I've got this."

She faced the Grimm, her weapons holstered, clasped her hands together and bowed her head.

"Nila I don't think now's the time to be meditating!" I angrily yelled at the girl. She did not move or look at me, she continued to 'meditate'. The Beowolves started moving closer to us, making me more concerned for our safety.

"Nila!" I yelled again. She didn't respond and the Beowolves were getting closer, so I decided to fight the Grimm. But before I could do anything something something caught my attention from the corner of my eye.

Looking to my right I observed what appeared to be a wolf with a light blue aura around it. Another two on my left caught my attention. I looked back at Nila and noticed that her hair was glowing a light blue similar to that of the wolves' aura. The wolves growled at the Beowolves, exposing their teeth. The Grimm stopped, the largest one growling at us. Nila's wolves charged at the lead Beowolf, which also charged at us. Two of the wolves lunged at the Beowolf, one jumping onto its neck, another onto one of its legs. The third stopped after running past the Beowolf and began growling at the other Beowolves. The Beowolf leader fell on it's back as the attacking wolves mauled the Grimm to death. The Beowolf eventually stopped struggling and began to dissolve, with the two wolves joining the other in growling at the rest of the Beowolf pack.

The remaining Beowolves ran away, fearing they would die the same as their pack leader. As they did something to our right caught my attention. At first I thought it was another one of the blue wolves, but then I realized it was the other Beowolf from earlier. It was running at Nila and she had no idea it was coming for her. I ran over to Nila and pushed her out of the way of the oncoming Beowolf. I gripped Janus with both hands tightly as the Grimm approached, ready to fight and kill it. Standing with my dominant right foot back and my weapon at my side, I waited for the Beowolf to get close before attacking it.

When it got close it swung its right claw at me. I ducked down, avoiding the Beowolf's strike and swung Janus at it's torso, cutting it in half and killing it instantly. The two halves of the monster tumbled to the ground and began to dissolve away.

Before I could do anything I heard a low growl behind me, a growl that I recognized. It wasn't a growl from a Beowolf, it was something worse. I turned around and saw the source of the growl.

It was an Ursa Major.

I just stood there, unable to move. It was as if I were frozen where I stood. My hands started shaking uncontrollably and my heart began pounding in my chest.

 _The creature swung it's paw down towards me. I tried to dodge it but it still hit me, and I was thrown into a nearby tree, which knocked the wind out of me, and fell to the ground._

The Ursa started running towards me and I still couldn't move.

 _I tried to get up again, but when I tried I felt an agonizing pain in my side, and I also felt something wet slide down my body. I assumed the worst as I placed my right hand on the site of the pain, feeling something warm and wet. I looked and my hand, and saw it covered in blood._

It was getting closer to me and my body refused to move. Just as the Ursa lunged at me I was tackled to the ground by Nila, the Ursa missing me entirely. I accidentally deactivated Janus as we hit the ground, probably for the best so I didn't cut us in half.

"Are you fucking crazy!?" Nila yelled at me, "You could have gotten yourself killed!"

She got up to her feet and clasped her hands together, her hair glowing light blue again. Six wolves appeared beside her and ran towards the Ursa Major. Said Grimm stood on it's hind legs and swatted one of the wolves as it lunged at its opponent. The other wolves, however, were successful and jumped onto the Grimm, clawing and biting the creature. While they did keep it from attacking us, the wolf pack did nothing to harm it. Then I realized I had an opportunity to take down the Grimm.

I quickly jumped to my feet and ran at the Ursa Major, reactivating Janus as I did. It took notice of me and swung one of it's at me just as I was within a few feet of it. I quickly slid on my knees to avoid the strike from the Ursa. I swung Janus at the Ursa's leg as I slid past it, cutting it off and making it stumble to the ground. after getting back on my feet I threw Janus at the Ursa's neck and decapitating it. The lifeless Ursa fell to the ground as I called Janus back to my hand with my semblance.

One by one Nila's wolves began to fade away and I deactivated my weapon. I looked at Nila, her hair dimming. I also noticed her eyes were glowing as well, but like her hair her eyes dimmed as well. She also had a look of worry on her face. Then I remembered what had happened. I looked down at the dead Ursa Major, trying to figure out what had happened.

 _Why did I freeze up when I saw the Ursa?_ I thought to myself. _Why did I remember what happened that night?_

"Hey are you alright?" I failed to see Nila walk up to me. She still had the same look of worry on her face.

"Yeah I'm fine," I replied. I then remembered what we were suppose to be doing. "Come on, we have to find those ruins."

We began walking off in the direction we were going before. I couldn't get what had happened off my mind, but I had to ignore it and concentrate on finding the ruins so me and Nila could get out of here, possibly finding some people in the process.


	9. Relics

We had been walking at least ten minutes after fighting off the Beowolves and the Ursa Major, though to me it felt longer. Since the encounter with the Grimm we hadn't talked once. I was trying to forget about what happened by concentrating on finding the temple we were looking for, and sure enough we finally found it. Observing it from the treeline we could see that it was circular in shape, and ancient. The temple itself was in ruins, and only five of its eight columns remained standing, showing how old it truly was. The design reminded me of ancient Greek and Celtic structures back on Earth.

"I'm pretty sure this is it," I told Nila. "And I don't see any Grimm hanging around."

I looked at my partner, who happened to be looking for anymore Grimm. I noticed that she had one of her hand resting on her tomahawk. Not gripping, resting. She was probably playing it smart by having her hand near one of her weapons just in case some Grimm decided to pay us another visit.

Again...

 _It was getting closer to me and my body refused to move._

I pushed all of it to the back of my mind and concentrated on the task at hand: getting the relic and leaving.

"Let's go."

I started walking over to the abandoned temple, with Nila following me not too far behind. I was watching our surroundings, and I was sure Nila was too. Like I said before we didn't want another surprise Grimm. As we got closer I started to see what was inside the temple. There were around twenty pedestals, most of which had small objects on top of them. Looking closer at these objects I realized they were black and gold chess pieces.

"Chess pieces?" Nila asked out loud, looking at one of the gold knights. I was looking around at the pieces, and noted which ones were missing. Both of the black bishops, and one of the gold pawns.

"This must be how teams are determined," I thought out loud, "If we take one of these piece and someone takes another one of the same color, then we'll probably end up on the same team..."

I began looking around at the chess pieces, wondering which one my partner and I should choose. I didn't want to choose the remaining gold pawn, as I did not know who took the other one. But at the same time we had no idea who was going to end up on our team anyway, so taking any of the pieces didn't matter. So after some quick and careful thinking I used my semblance to call the gold king to my hand and caught it.

"Well, we have our piece," I said to Nila, who was still looking around, "Let's get out of here."

I was about to start walking away when I realized Nila didn't acknowledge what I said. All she did was keep looking around, as if she were looking for something.

"Nila?"

No response. Then I saw her hand move towards her tomahawk. I knew what was going on. I put the chess piece in my pocket and grabbed Janus off my belt and got ready to turn it on.

"Please tell me it's just another rabbit."

"I'm not sure what it is..."

I wasn't sure if what she said made me relieved or more concerned. I started looking around as well, trying to figure out if I could see what Nila was hearing. Then I heard something, something faint, and something that sounded like yelling. It also sounded it was coming closer, really fast.

"WATCH OUT!"

As I looked up above me to investigate the strange voice I realized what was about to happen. It was too late, however, as something resembling a human slammed into me, knocking the wind right of me and slamming me right into the hard ground. The back of my head hit the ground so hard my ears started ringing and my vision blurred. The person who landed on me started getting up, and I could hear them saying something, but I couldn't tell what.

"What?" I asked, hoping to be able to hear them clearly this time.

"I said next time don't stand there like an idiot."

 _Don't have to be a dick about it_ , I thought to myself. The person speaking sounded male, but Jaune was the only other guy here that I knew. My vision came back to me and I could make out the man's face. He was pale, almost as pale as Weiss, and had gray hair, which appeared to be just shorter than mine. His hand was outstretched, offering to help me to my feet.

"Well next time don't fall out of the sky." I said, taking his hand. When I got to my feet I got a look at him. He looked like he was just an inch or two taller than Ruby was. He wore a olive drab long-sleeve shirt and black cargo pants. He also had a green belt with two pouches on the left and a holstered handgun on the right.

"It's not my fault my partner's fucking insane." He said to me with anger clearly present in his voice. "She used me as bait for a couple of angry Grimm that she thought were in our way! And after that she used a tree to launch me over here!"

"I'm pretty sure that breaks the laws of physics," I quipped, "How hard did you hit your head?"

"Not hard enough." He replied under his breath.

 _That's unfortunate._

"INCOMING!"

Before I could even react another person slammed into me and I, once again, fell to the ground and hit my head on the ground hard. I could safely say at this point that is was raining men, but I didn't because not only did I have the wind knocked out of me a second time, but now I had not one but two concussions. I let out a groan as I tried to open my eyes and see who else had fallen from the sky and onto me. My vision may have been blurred but I made out who was on top of me. Blonde hair, eyes as blue as the sky, pale white skin, it was-

"Ash!"

"Azura!"

Immediately we enveloped each other in a tight hug. It was, however, a little awkward because we were still lying on the ground, but we didn't care. We were happy to see each other again.

"Fucking wait a goddamn minute!" Azura's partner yelled, causing Azure and I to momentarily cease our hugging. "You fucking know her!?"

"Yeah!" Azura said, wrapping her arms around my neck again, "He's my fuck buddy!"

A sudden expression of horror appeared on the boy's face as Azura finished her sentence. To be honest I found it hard not to laugh. Nila, however, looked concerned at what Azura had just said. At the time I didn't understand why…

"W-w-wh-w-wha-" Sounds came out of the boy's mouth but he struggle to make words with them, "What d-did she j-just say?"

"She means best friend." I said, correcting Azura and erasing the horrified look from the boy's face. A sigh of relief escaped Nila's mouth.

"Aw we've downgraded…" Azura said disappointingly as she got up off of me. As she got to her feet she offered her hand to help me up, which I took once again. I felt like falling over as soon as I got to my feet, which didn't surprise me considering how I hit my head hard on the ground twice now.

"If he has brain damage it's your fault." Her partner said angrily. I didn't know what Azura did between falling from the sky and right now, but regardless it pissed off her partner. And I did silently agree with him that my head trauma was her fault.

"Oh I almost forgot!" Azura said loudly, "Ash this is Lloyd. Lloyd this is Ash and-"

Azura stopped talking when she finally noticed Nila.

"Wait who are you?" Azura asked the blue haired girl.

"Oh right." I said, "Azura this is my partner Nila. Nila this is my best friend Azura."

"Hello!" My partner said happily.

Azura said nothing, instead choosing to stare at Nila. After a few seconds of making my partner feel uncomfortable, the blonde nudged her elbow into my ribs as if she were trying to get my attention.

"What?" I asked her.

"She's pretty cute." She whispered, a grin clear on her face. Whenever I was with another girl I had known for no more than an hour she would behave this way. I usually ignored her, but sometimes she made that kind of difficult.

"Yeah I noticed," I replied with a slightly annoyed tone. "Your point?"

"I'm just saying fifteen minutes is more than enough time to have some fun-"

"You know I can hear you right?"

It didn't come to me as a surprise that Nila was able to hear Azura speaking. From our limited knowledge of the Faunus we knew that it was common for them to have heightened senses, like night vision and better hearing. Azura seemed to have forgotten about the latter, or maybe even both.

"Aren't we supposed to take one of these chess pieces?" Lloyd asked, examining one of the gold bishops. With his back turned to me I could finally see the rifle in his back. It appeared to be a bolt action rifle with a sniper's scope mounted above the action. It had a straight grip shoulder stock with a cheek riser mounted on it. Most of the rifle and the scope itself was black, with all metal parts of the rifle, mainly the bolt, being a dulled and worn silver finish. This made me believe that it had been used for a while.

"Yeah I think it's how the teams are determined," I explained to Lloyd and Azura, "We take two pieces of the same color and we are on the same team. I have the gold king, so if you take the gold queen you will be on my team."

Lloyd nodded his head in agreement and was about to walk over to the queen until we realized Azura had already taken it.

"Well she already has it," I said to myself, "Now let's get out of-"

Once again I was unable to finish my sentence as someone jumped onto my from behind and wrapped their arms around my neck, causing me to fall forward onto the ground, again.

That day just wasn't my day.

"Ashie!"

Yet another voice I recognized. That voice belonged to Yang Xiao Long. On top of her voice I knew it was her because she was the only one who called me "Ashie."

 _Hello third concussion…_

"Hi Yang..." I said weakly. Luckily I didn't get the air knocked out of me like the other two times people came falling from the sky onto me. But that didn't mean I was going to have one hell of a headache after initiation.

"Wow Ash I'm impressed," Azura joked, "Usually you have to go to Vegas to get this many successive blows to the head."

I would have said something among the lines of go fuck yourself, but before I said anything I realized what Azura had said. We had both agreed that if something like this were to come out accidentally while we were speaking to anyone then we would just bullshit an explanation or say that it was none of their business. Luckily this was something we could easily make up an explanation for.

"What the fuck is Vegas?" Lloyd asked confused. And this is where the bullshiting came in.

"A village me and Ash lived near when we were younger," Azura explained calmly, "It was known for it's prostitutes."

 _Nice save._

"Vegas seems like a nice place to live." Yang said, finally removing her arms from my neck and standing up. I started getting up when yet another hand was offered to help me up. Looking up at the owner of the hand I realized it belonged to the girl with the black bow on her head. I gladly took her hand and got back to my feet with her help.

"Blake Belladonna." The girl said. She seemed mellow compared to the other four people here, and she had only told me her name.

"Ash Krieger." I replied. I didn't notice anyone else around besides the six of us so I assumed he was Yang's partner. Blake appeared just an inch shorter than the blonde and wore a white and black outfit which matched her dark hair and pale complexion.

Blake averted her gaze to something behind me and walked passed me as if to get a closer look. Turning around to see what she was looking at I noticed that her attention was fixed on one of the black Knight pieces.

"Chess pieces?" She asked, seemingly to herself.

 _I'm gonna have to explain it again aren't I?_ I thought to myself. In all honesty I hated having to explain the same thing to different people multiple times so I did not want to explain the reasoning behind the relics a third time. I was also slightly concerned that explaining it to people was causing other human beings to fall from the sky and onto me and I didn't want a fourth concussion.

"The relics determine who's on who's team," Lloyd explained to Blake, "If you have the same color piece as another pair of students then you are on the same team."

 _Thank you Lloyd._

"Well, I guess we should pick one." Blake told Yang, who was studying the gold knight. She then picked up the knight and showed Blake the piece.

"How about a cute little pony?" Yang asked her partner.

"Sure." Blake replied, rolling her eyes and smirking. The pair rejoined Nila, Azura, Lloyd and I at the center of the temple, Yang holding onto the gold knight piece.

"That wasn't too hard!" Yang chirped.

"Well this place isn't exactly hard to find," Nila told her. No one was able to say anything else, however, as a loud and unexpected scream pierced the air and my eardrums.

"Some girl's in trouble!" Yang exclaimed, activating her gauntlets, "What should we do?"

Before I could react I felt someone tapping my arm trying to get my attention. I looked at the person responsible and realized it was Blake. She was looking and pointing at something above us. I looked up at what she was pointing at and saw something falling towards us. Something red and black…

Red and black…

 _Ruby?_

"HEADS UP!"

 _You've got to be fucking kidding me…_


	10. Players and Pieces

**In memory of Gene Larkin.**

* * *

"Heads up!"

 _You've got to be fucking kidding me..._

Ruby was falling to the ground right on top of us. I started moving to a position to try and catch her when another person slammed into her midair, sending them both flying into a nearby tree.

"What the hell…" I muttered to myself, trying to figure out in my head what had just happened. My attention, however, shifted to the treeline where Nila and I came from. An Ursa came stumbling from the forest and into the clearing, knocking down a few trees in its way.

"YEEE-HAAAW!"

A yell pierced the air and an explosion seemingly coming from behind the Ursa made the Grimm collapse to the ground. As it did a girl in a pink and white outfit came rolling off of it's back and onto the ground. The Ursa lay motionless on the ground, much to the disappointment of the girl. Out from behind the lifeless Grimm came a boy wearing a green coat. He appeared to be out of breath, probably trying to catch up to the girl.

 _Doesn't that seem familiar…_

I felt a tug on my sleeve and turned my head to see Azura looking around cautiously.

"Do you ever get the feeling you're being watched?" Azura asked quietly. This was something Azura asked me frequently, especially during our past three months here. I always played it off as here being paranoid because I never really felt like someone was monitoring me, even back home.

"The government does it all the time, why do you ask?" I replied sarcastically. Azura scowled at me in return.

"I'm being serious," she replied angrily, pulling me closer to her, "I think someone is watching us."

 _You're always being serious._

"Ozpin and Goodwitch are watching us from the cliffs," I told her, "But no one else is watching us-"

"I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the Castle!"

"Nora!"

Without realizing it the girl in the pink and white outfit had made it to the temple and started dancing with one of the white rooks on top of her head. She stopped, however, when the boy in the green coat called out her name from the treeline.

"Coming Ren!" The girl said cheerfully, saluting and dropping the rook into her hand. Nora skipped off happily to Ren leaving us wondering what the hell just happened.

"Did that girl just ride in on an Ursa?" Blake wondered out loud. Yang, who was just as confused as the rest of us, tried to say something but was once again interrupted by a loud screech to our right. Out of the forest came Captain Canada herself, followed closely by a giant scorpion-like Grimm. The giant Grimm tried to hit her with it's giant claws, the girl just barely avoiding them. I heard her yell something but I could not make out what she said. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something red and black fall to the ground next to me making me jump a little. To my relief it was just Ruby and not a small Grimm.

"Ruby!" I exclaimed. The girl looked up at me and smiled.

"Ash!" The girl yelled cheerfully as she moved in for a hug.

"Nora!" The hyperactive redhead appeared out of nowhere between Ruby and I, surprising us both.

"Is she bringing that Death Stalker towards us?" Lloyd asked no one in particular. Before anyone could answer his question Yang suddenly exploded into a ball of fire.

"I can't take it anymore! Can everyone just chill out for two seconds before something crazy happens again?!"

Yang's sudden outburst scared the shit out of us. Azura had panicked and hid behind me while Lloyd hid behind a fallen pillar. Nila and I stayed where we were, but the wolf Faunus took a couple steps away from Yang a second after her outburst. Ren, the boy in the green coat, finally made it over to us, much to Nora's delight.

"Um Ash…" Ruby said while tapping me on the arm. I looked at her to see what she wanted and noticed she was looking and pointing to something in the sky. I looked up at the sky and saw a Nevermore circling above us, followed closely by something white. It took me a second to realize that it wasn't a something but a someone.

Weiss Schnee.

"Well at least nothing happened for two seconds." I said disappointingly.

"Why did you leave me!?" I heard the heiress yell down to Ruby.

"I said jump!" Ruby called back.

"She's gonna get hurt." Nila pointed out to Ruby. Sure enough Weiss let go of the Nevermore and began falling to the ground. The only person who could prevent her from getting hurt was me, but before I could use my semblance Jaune jumped out of the tree he was in to catch her.

In mid air…

I used my semblance to stop the Jaune and Weiss from falling. When they finally realized they were still in the air they clung to each other and I stopped using my semblance, letting them fall to the ground as a joke. They were close enough to the ground where they wouldn't get hurt from the fall. Jaune landed on the ground first and then Weiss landed on him.

Our attention then quickly shifted to Captain Canada and the Death Stalker. Ren and Lloyd drew their weapons just as the Grimm finally landed a hit on the girl and sent her flying into the ground right in front of us.

"Great! The gang's all here! Now we can all die together!" Yang deadpanned.

"Not if I can help it!" Ruby charged the Death Stalker and unfolded Crescent Rose.

"Ruby no!" I yelled as I unsuccessfully tried to grab her cloak to pull her back. Ruby attempted to strike the Grimm but was hit by one of it's claws and was knocked into the ground. As Ruby tried to get up the Death Stalker started moving towards her. I saw what was about to happen and grabbed Janus off my belt, activating it and throwing it at the Grimm. My weapon sliced into a couple of it's eyes causing it to stumble around. I used my semblance to bring Janus back to my hands and started running to Ruby.

"Ruby run!" I yelled out to the girl. Ruby turned away from the Grimm and started running to me. I heard Yang call her sister's name and was sure she was right behind me. Then I noticed the Nevermore swooping in behind Ruby. It then stopped in the sky and flapped it's wings in our direction, sending several giant feathers hurtling towards us. I saw one of the feathers snag onto Ruby's cloak. Then I realized there were feathers coming towards me and Yang. I suddenly felt someone grab onto the back of my jacket and pull me back. I realized it was Yang when we both fell down just as we were about to run right into a couple of the feathers. Ruby was trying desperately to get her cloak free of the feathers as the Death Stalker came closer and closer.

"Ruby get out of there!" Yang yelled out to her sister. I saw the the Death Stalker raising its tail and jumped back to my feet, running around the line of feathers. A flash of white passed me and collided with the tail of the Death Stalker, which was quickly stuck in a wall of ice. I stopped where I was to try and figure out what just happened. Weiss had come in just in time and trapped the stinger of the Grimm in the ice, saving Ruby from a horrible death. Weiss started walking away from Ruby after a short conversation. I ran over to Ruby, who was staring at the trapped Grimm, to make sure she was alright. She turned around after probably hearing me run over to her.

"Ash-"

"Ruby are you alright!? You're not hurt are you!?" I said frantically.

"Ash I'm fine!"

I let out a sigh of relief when I heard those words come out of her mouth. I was suppose to protect Ruby and I had almost failed not even half a day after I made that promise to Summer.

"I'm just glad you're ok." I told Ruby. She was about to say something when Yang came in and enveloped her in a hug.

"I'm so happy you're ok!" Yang said as she released her sister from her hug. We then ran back to the temple where everyone else was waiting for us.

"Guys that thing is circling back," Jaune said anxiously, "What are we gonna do?"

"There's no sense in dilly-dallying," Weiss told him, "Our objective is right in front of us."

"She's right. Our mission is to grab an artifact and make it back to the cliffs. There's no point in fighting these things." Ruby explained.

"Run and live. That's an idea I can get behind." Jaune replied. He and Ruby then quickly grabbed their relics. The Death Stalker was close to breaking free of the ice and we did not want to fight it.

"Time we left!" Ren told everyone. We started running for the cliffs when I noticed Azura was not moving at all. She was just standing there doing nothing.

"Azura?"

"I knew it." She replied. I didn't know what she was talking about until I realized she was staring at the tree line. I looked in the direction of whatever she was looking at when I saw it.

Someone wearing a dark gray hooded cloak was watching us from the tree line of the forest. They had a hand holding onto their cloak and another hand up on a tree. The hood of their cloak obscured their face from our view, making sure we didn't know who they were. Azura suddenly drew Aeterna Flamma and dashed for the cloaked figure. The mysterious person then ran into the forest not wanting Azura to catch them.

"Wait Azura!" I called out. I wasn't gonna wait while someone took off carelessly again so I started sprinting after her.

"Ash what are you doing!?" I heard Ruby yell. I turned around so she could hear me clearly.

"Just get everyone to the cliffs! We'll catch up!" I yelled as loud as I could. I then continued to run after Azura and the cloaked figure. Azura was a lot faster than I remembered. "Azura stop!"

She just kept running

* * *

I was running as fast as I could to try and catch my best friend while dodging several trees in my way. Finally she stopped, seemingly losing the the person who was watching us. I ran up to her and grabbed her by the arm.

"What the hell are you doing!?" I yelled angrily.

"I told you we were being watched!" She replied, pulling her arm out of my grip. "That person was watching us! We need to know who they are and why they were watching us!"

"That doesn't mean you can just run off after them like that! They could have attacked you!"

"But they didn't! If they wanted to attacked us they would have already done it!"

I couldn't argue against that. She was right. The person watching us, whoever they were, would have attacked by the time we saw them. They would have attacked us while we were split up in the forest. We would have been easier to take out. So why watch us?

"You fucking morons!"

I turned around to see Nila and an out of breath Lloyd run up to us.

"Why the hell are you running off like that!?" Nila demanded.

"That person was watching us! I wanted to know why!" Azura asserted. Nila just looked at her confused.

"What person? What are you talking about?"

"Someone was watching us from the trees," I replied, "They ran off when Azura drew her weapon and charged them-"

"And if they could have attacked us anytime today but they didn't!" Azura interjected. Then I remembered that Azura drew her sword before charging the cloaked person.

"Hold on. If you didn't think they were a threat why did you draw your sword on them?"

"Well what would you have done?" Azura demanded.

"Smiled and waved." I replied sarcastically. Azura shot me an angry look as she put her sword back into her scabbard.

"I'm trying to be serious right now." She hissed. While I was being sarcastic I also meant it.

"Well if that's the case then I would have done nothing. We have no idea who they are or what they are capable of."

"So you would have done nothing then!?" Azura shouted.

"It's better than not knowing what you're getting yourself into!"

 _Hiss._

Azura and I stood still and completely silent as soon as we heard that hiss. There was no doubt what it was. We turned our heads and saw two giant snake heads, one black and one white.

A king Taijitu.


End file.
